As warehouses face growing pressure from labor shortages, rising costs, and limited floor space, many companies are turning to automation to stay competitive. Brightpick this week said it has partnered with Thistle Systems, a Glasgow, U.K.-based integrator of automated storage systems, to expand access to its robotic fulfillment platform across the U.K.
“Partnering with Brightpick allows us to offer one of the most innovative and scalable robotic solutions on the market today,” stated Mike Cairns, CEO of Thistle Systems. “Their AI robots are unique in combining extreme ease of deployment and scalability with advanced end-to-end automation. Together, we will help customers transform their operations while minimizing deployment costs and implementation risk.”
Founded in 1996, Thistle Systems said it has built a client base across manufacturing, retail, defense, food and beverage, healthcare and other industries. The company‘s portfolio includes robotic order-picking systems as well as its Autocube pallet-storage automation.
In the past 29 years, Thistle Systems said it has completed thousands of installations across the U.K. with customers such as Nestle, BAE Systems, and Arla.
Thistle Systems to offer fulfillment automation
Brightpick asserted that its AI robots can critical order-fulfillment workflows while eliminating labor dependency and maximizing warehouse space utilization.
Thistle Systems plans to offer customers the full suite of Brightpick products, including:
- Autopicker: Brightpick’s flagship multi-purpose mobile manipulator automates a wide range of warehouse workflows, including order picking, buffering, consolidation, dispatch, and stock replenishment.
- Retriever: This mobile robot is designed for goods-to-person (G2P) picking operations.
- Giraffe: Launched in February, the extendable mobile robot can reach up to 6 m (20 ft.) to enable high-density vertical storage. Giraffe works alongside Autopicker and Retriever robots to retrieve totes from upper levels.
- Brightbox: Brightpick said the “end-to-end automated fulfillment solution” is intended for brownfield mezzanines, combining its robots with modular racking and software for fast deployment.
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Brightpick offers fast, flexible automation
“Thistle Systems has a proven track record of delivering complex automation projects across the U.K.,” said Branislav Pulis, chief revenue officer at Brightpick. “This partnership strengthens our U.K. presence and allows more companies to benefit from our fast, flexible robotic solutions.”
Brightpick said its robotic systems take just weeks to deploy and allow companies to keep their warehouse labor to a minimum. The Erlanger, Ky.-based company has more than 250 employees and hundreds of AI robots deployed with customers across the U.S. and Europe.
Brightpick was a 2024 RBR50 Startup of the Year honoree for Autopicker, which combines an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) with machine vision, machine learning, and a robotic arm to pick directly to onboard totes. It offers its systems through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model.
