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Supply chains are facing growing pressure to consolidate retail, wholesale, and e-commerce operations into fewer facilities. Exotec SAS yesterday announced a strategic partnership with E80 Group S.P.A. The companies plan to design a joint system that integrates Exotec’s Skypod automated storage and retrieval system, or ASRS, with E80’s suite of pallet-handling systems.
The collaboration will automate each, case, and pallet handling within one system, said the partners. This will eliminate unnecessary equipment, they added.
“Exotec and E80 Group don’t just offer complementary technologies — we share the same philosophy of reducing complexity through intelligent, product-first design,” stated Romain Moulin, co-founder and CEO of Exotec. “That’s why we heavily invested in this partnership with E80 Group to design a joint solution that will set the new standard for end-to-end automation in the grocery and CPG industries, and beyond.”
Exotec offers more efficient picking
The partnership aims to enhance process security, efficiency, and service-level demands. Historically, operators were forced to rely on siloed tote/case and pallet systems that required complex integration, duplicated infrastructure, and labor-intensive handoffs, said Exotec and E80 Group.
By combining their technologies, the companies said they will remove this fragmentation and enable “seamless” flow of pallets and cases from inbound to outbound.
Founded in 2015, Exotec claimed that it combines hardware and software to improve efficiency and working conditions. The Lille, France-based company offers modular systems, with Skypod ASRS serving as the central engine for each and case picking.
Exotec said its Deepsky proprietary warehouse execution system (WES) acts as the conductor, coordinating product movement across automated equipment. The company noted that more than 50 industry-leading brands, including Gap Inc., Carrefour, Decathlon, and UNIQLO, trust it to improve their operations across over 150 sites worldwide.
E80, Exotec target CPG and grocery industries
Exotec and E80 are initially targeting the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and grocery industries. In these industries, warehouses must handle high volumes of full pallets, mixed cases, and individual items at speed.
By uniting pallet, case, and item handling in one system, partners said they will help CPG and grocery decision makers cut costs, boost resilience, and accelerate fulfillment across all channels.
“This partnership marks an important step forward for the intralogistics industry,” said Gabriele Grassi, deputy chairman of E80 Group. “Together, we’re not just integrating two systems — we’re rethinking how goods can move seamlessly from production to store shelves or e-commerce. Pairing Exotec’s flexible ASRS with our end-to-end solutions creates a new model for automation that aligns with the future of retail and consumer demand.”
Viano, Italy-based E80 Group brings expertise in intralogistics for production plants and distribution centers. This includes everything from truck unloading of raw materials and finished products, picking and warehousing operations, to final shipping with automatic loading.
All of these are managed by automated guided vehicles and laser-guided vehicles (AGVs/LGVs) and coordinated through the company‘s proprietary SM.I.LE80 software.
Founded in 1980 by Enrico Grassi, president, E80 Group has developed integrated automation for producers and distributors across food, beverage, tissue, and other industries. It has implemented more than 450 deployments for global leaders such as Barilla, Nestlé, Coca Cola, Constellation Brands, Sofidel and Niagara.
The company said its systems handle more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion U.S.) of products worldwide every day. E80 operates through 16 subsidiaries supporting customers globally.