For those who believe that the surge of interest in warehouse automation and robotics was just a pandemic fling that will fade as the labor market loosens, meet Malcolm Wilson.
He¡¯s the chief executive officer of GXO Logistics Inc., which operates about 900 warehouses, mostly in the U.S. and Europe for customers including Nike Inc. and Nestle SA. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company, which cobbles together different types of robots tailored to a client¡¯s needs, signed up a record $475 million of new business in the second quarter and has a pipeline of automated logistics projects that extend into 2024.
Even though GXO is one of the most advanced warehouse operators, the trend of adopting automation is only getting started. About a third of GXO¡¯s warehouses are automated, double the percentage of about five years ago. GXO expects to have 60% to 70% of its warehouses operating mostly with machines in the next five years, he said. The warehousing industry as a whole is only about 5% automated, he said in a phone interview.
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