Körber AG yesterday announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Cohesio Group Ltd., an integrator of systems including robots for logistics. The companies did not specify the value of the transaction, which was completed on Sept. 20.
Hamburg, Germany-based Körber AG is a private company that has more than 10,000 employees worldwide. The Körber Logistics Systems business provides fully integrated systems for optimizing smart factories, warehouses, and distribution centers. It includes discrete units for systems integration, products, and software around palletizing, depalletizing, and materials handling, among other functions.
Melbourne, Australia-based Cohesio designs, integrates, and supports process and workflow optimization. The company provides software and integration services for drones, industrial automation, and connectivity. Cohesio said it serves manufacturing, supply chain, and retail customers, particularly across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
The company also claimed to have “one of the world’s largest and most experienced Honeywell Vocollect voice integration teams.” Cohesio will join Körber Logistics’ software business unit.
“With Cohesio, we are underpinning our claim to ‘market leadership through technology leadership’ in the future-oriented fields of voice and robot technology,” said Stephan Seifert, chairman of the Group Executive Board at Körber AG. “We are also expanding our presence in the particularly fast-growing markets of the APAC region, where we are able to inspire and support our customers with the best products and solutions for the supply chain.”
Cohesio acquisition a Geek+ partner
Cohesio has an exclusive partnership with Geek+, which today launched a smart factory in Nanjing, China. It uses Geek+’s own robots, algorithms, and other automation to manufacture mobile robots.
Cohesio and Geek+ collaborated on the creation of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for warehouses. They the AGVs said could reduce costs to $1 million to $3 million, compared with $15 million to $20 million for a traditional goods deployment system.
Körber grows support for e-commerce
Körber said its Logistics Systems unit “has been tracking Cohesio Group for quite some time.” The company said it expects Cohesio’s voice technology and robots to broaden its global product portfolio.
In February 2018, Körber led a $24.8 million investment round in Magazino, which makes mobile picking robots for small and midsized boxes.
Körber noted that that “Cohesio’s market-leading position in the deployment of autonomous mobile robotics solutions in the [APAC] region makes them even more attractive, showing their innovative approach to providing value-adding solutions to their rapidly expanding customer base.”
At the same time, “Cohesio Group’s go-to-market approach and strategy will be unchanged,” stated the companies. “The current portfolio of products and solutions will be unchanged. If anything, the opportunity to broaden this is a very real possibility. Being able to leverage the larger Körber AG network and portfolio of solutions to deliver a much more holistic solution offering in the market.”
The Robot Report is launching the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, which will be on Dec. 9-10 in Santa Clara, Calif. The conference and expo will focus on improving the design, development, and manufacture of next-generation healthcare robots. Learn more about the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum, and registration is now open.
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