According to www.prnewswire.com, Exotec® announced at the LogiMAT trade show a multi-site warehouse automation program—Skyfleet®—for Decathlon across seven warehouses in five European countries: France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, and Germany.
Standardized Architecture for Pan-European Replenishment
Building on its first Skypod® deployment at Tilburg (Netherlands) in 2021, Decathlon launched an ambitious initiative to standardize store replenishment across Europe. Exotec designed a replicable, scalable warehouse architecture deployed uniformly across all seven sites. Each Skyfleet facility features:
- A fleet of 150 to 200 Skypod robots
- 100,000 to 125,000 storage locations
- Throughput capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 lines per hour
- Processing 150,000 to 200,000 items per day
- 7 to 13 picking stations, including configurations with order movers
- Parcel buffering within the same storage system
- Full automation of inbound and outbound flows
End-to-End Automation & Software Unification
At every site, Exotec integrated standardized auxiliary equipment—including automatic depalletizers, carton openers, RFID tunnels, and palletizers—to maximize intralogistics automation. Standardizing these components reduced design-phase costs and time. Deployment acceleration was further enabled by shared learnings and mutualized resources across sites.
All operations are orchestrated by Deepsky®, Exotec’s proprietary Warehouse Execution System (WES), which unifies interfaces and ensures operational continuity. Site standardization allowed Exotec to develop a single software codebase deployed across all seven warehouses—simplifying implementation and support.
Measurable Human & Operational Gains
The Skyfleet program has significantly improved working conditions for Decathlon’s warehouse teams. At Northampton (UK), picker walking distance dropped from 10 km to 1 km per day, and workplace incidents related to order picking fell from 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 10,000.
Performance gains are equally substantial:
- Ferrières (France) now serves 73 stores, up from 37
- Setúbal (Portugal) increased coverage from 41 to 73 stores
- Setúbal’s daily order preparation rose to 114,000 orders—double its pre-Skyfleet capacity of 57,000
Harmonized dashboards and tools enable cross-site benchmarking, best-practice sharing, and continuous optimization—even as each site remains locally managed. The architecture also supports flexibility: robots can be redeployed between sites during peak demand. Ferrières, for example, added 13 additional robots post-launch.
“We were looking for a partner to support us in rationalizing our logistics network. We chose Exotec because they were able to deploy many sites in a short time and integrate scalable solutions that adapt to our evolution. In five years, we have profoundly transformed the experience of our warehouse employees and written the next chapter of logistics for Decathlon.” — Jérôme Saillour, Head of Logistics Automation at Decathlon
“When we launched our first Skypod robotic system nearly ten years ago, we brought flexibility and resilience to storage and order picking. As intralogistics has become strategic for our clients, we now create value across the entire warehouse, and through this Skyfleet program, we demonstrate our ability to orchestrate multi-site deployments.” — Romain Moulin, co-founder and CEO of Exotec
Industry Context for Supply Chain Professionals
This deployment aligns with broader industry trends toward standardized, modular automation—mirroring similar multi-site rollouts by companies like Zalando (with Locus Robotics in Germany) and Nike (with Honeywell Intelligrated in Spain and the Netherlands). According to MHI’s 2023 Annual Industry Report, 68% of supply chain leaders cite standardization across facilities as critical to scaling automation ROI. Decathlon’s approach—combining hardware uniformity, shared software, and centralized learning—reduces both CapEx complexity and OpEx variability. For practitioners, the case underscores how replicable design, coupled with unified WES control, enables faster ramp-up, lower training overhead, and measurable ESG outcomes (e.g., injury reduction, ergonomic uplift) alongside throughput gains. With over 1,817 stores and 101,100 teammates globally, Decathlon’s success signals scalability potential for mid- to large-cap retailers managing fragmented European distribution networks.
Source: www.prnewswire.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
