Ocado snaps up robotics firms Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics
Ocado has purchased two North American robotics firms, Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics, as it looks to boost its grocery picking and packing capabilities.
Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Ocado, which has also upped its profit guidance for the year for its Marks and Spencer JV as trade “remains strong” in the fourth quarter, says that it is creating “probably the best robotics team in the world”. Although arch rival AutoStore might have something to say about that.
“The robotic pick opportunity in online grocery is of huge value to us and our clients globally,” says Tim Steiner, CEO at Ocado Group.
“We’ve made meaningful progress in developing the machine learning, computer vision and engineering systems required for the robotic picking. For example, we’ve doubled the pick and pack speeds of our robotic arms at the five pick-stations that are currently live in our CFC in Erith, UK.”
He adds: “Through the acquisition of Kindred and Haddington, we are massively accelerating our investment and our progress in this space. This will mean our clients can roll-out facilities that will have better economics.”
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