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Acquisitions & Partnerships

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Dinamic

In April 2015, Vanderlande acquired Dinamic Grup (Dinamic). The takeover of the Spanish company has extended Vanderlande’s manufacturing capacity and added a number of new products to its distinctive portfolio.

Dinamic was founded in 1975. Initially, the company’s main area of business was intralogistics, both for airports and parcel handling centres. This was complemented by the production of accessories and chassis for industrial vehicles used for moving goods. Dinamic had a significant workforce that was also involved in the development of in-house products. It was established in Santpedor (Spain) and had other facilities in the USA and China.

Recognised for its high-quality manufacturing and products, Dinamic has had a longstanding working relationship with Vanderlande. The new company is named as Vanderlande Industries Santpedor. As part of the agreement, the company also acquired Dinamic Manufacturing USA Inc, which was renamed Vanderlande Manufacturing Calhoun.

Dinamic’s product range includes the Advanced automated screening lane and extendable conveyors.

Sentec

Sentec Software GmbH was acquired by Vanderlande in January 2017. For many years, Sentec has been a reliable partner to the German Vanderlande customer centre in Mönchengladbach. Together with the team in Hilden, which is very experienced with regard to material flow computers for warehousing and parcel, large projects like the DHL Hub in Leipzig, Edeka Südwest Fleisch as well as several smaller projects together had been realized in the past.

As the previous owner Franz-Josef Hoppe retired, the take-over means also a conversation of the status quo of the high IT knowledge of the company. In combination with the Vanderlande strategy, the integration of the former Sentec-employees will strengthen the IT know-how in general.

The company site will remain in Hilden which is about 40 minutes away from Mönchengladbach. So far, all employees will stay on board and will be integrated in the organization of the Vanderlande customer centre in Mönchengladbach. There will be no changes within the internal structure of Sentec to ensure that efficiency will remain. The name Sentec will not be continued.

Smart Robotics

Vanderlande obtained a minority shareholder interest in development company Smart Robotics in November 2017. Founded in 2015, it develops, sells and rents modular collaborative robots (or ‘cobots’) that can be configured for specific tasks.

Its solutions are utilised for a variety of processes such as order picking and placing, (de)palletising, and kitting and bagging where human operators are involved. Smart Robotics’ software platform is central to its solutions and allows for the integration of cutting-edge technology, such as vision sensors, artificial intelligence and grippers.

The partnership will create a focus on robotic technology development for logistic purposes, through a joint research and development (R&D) programme. A key development area will be item picking capabilities so as to further strengthen Vanderlande’s e-commerce warehousing solutions.

Fizyr

In February 2019, Vanderlande signed a strategic partnership with Delft-based company Fizyr to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology for its automated order picking, storage, unloading and palletising robotic solutions.

Fizyr researches and develops ‘deep-learning’ computer vision software. This enables robots to process a broad selection of items through extended flexibility and improved handling capabilities, and allows companies to maximise their operational efficiency.

The results will be integrated into Vanderlande’s existing product portfolio, such as Smart Item Robotics (SIR), which has been designed to handle the large variety of items common to the warehouse, parcel and airports markets. It will also help Vanderlande to develop and introduce new robotics solutions.