Starlinks, a leading logistics and supply chain solutions provider in Saudi Arabia, today announced the launch of the most technologically advanced fulfilment centre in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Located in Agility Logistics Park, adding to Starlinks’ 11 fulfilment centres across the KSA, the facility comprises a storage area of 400,000 square feet. It is equipped with 254 autonomous robots for picking and sorting, thereby providing storage capacity for over 12 million units. Starlinks aims to process an average of 3.6 million units orders per month. Combining world-class technology and industry-leading know-how, the solution will provide market-leading flexibility, accuracy and agility.  The facility will be fully operational by Q2 2023

With a total investment exceeding SAR 100 million, Starlinks championed an opportunity to address the ever-growing market demand and to stay true to its brand promise of providing the fastest e-commerce fulfilment cycle through an omnichannel fulfilment facility. The project is aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which aims to maximize the potential of the country’s non-oil sectors and bolster its role as a transit hub at the heart of the Middle East.     

Starlinks has partnered with Geek+ for automation technology, joining their top tier clientele, which includes Nike, Decathlon, and Walmart. Starlinks is the first to introduce robotics in a fulfilment centre alongside the conventional automation conveyors, the solution was developed in 2022 by Geek+, and Starlinks will be one of the first to showcase this solution.

This robotics solution used in Starlinks fulfilment centre achieves the optimal ratio through algorithm optimization. It improves the optimization of overall shelf space by 5x. It is also equipped with an intelligent depth camera and high-precision sensors, the robot can adjust to pick boxes of varying sizes of totes, cartons, and boxes and move them as fast as 2.5m/s. AMR is the future in terms of automation as it gives greater flexibility with the operation and the ability to scale very quickly by adding more robots. The Fulfilment Centre is run on a hybrid model that employs both robotics and manual picking systems and sortation functions. Adopting a working formula that involves both machines and humans, the company will bring promising employment opportunities to over 500 talented Saudi Nationals.

Salah Taha, Director of Operations at Starlinks, said, “We are excited to bring cutting-edge technology and automation solutions for fulfilment to the Kingdom, providing customers with fast and efficient fulfilment services in the KSA, thus reshaping fulfilment services in the KSA by providing our partners with guaranteed quality and instant scale to capacity. Our new solution comprises a pallet storage and handling storage system, a manual pick tower as well as a robotics solution allowing us to cater to a wide range of customer requirements and operations complemented by micro fulfilment centres distributed strategically across the Kingdom.

We are committed to driving further innovation in the logistics and supply chain industry in the region and reducing lead time to e-commerce shoppers.”

Salah added, “Advanced automation and big data analytics enable us to better track and manage inventory, predict demand, and optimize routes for transportation thus helping us to increase efficiency, reduce operating cost and provide seamless services to our customers.”

Gary Blythe, Managing Director of Starlinks, added, “Starlinks’ brand promise to innovate and deliver market-leading customer experience is demonstrated in this milestone investment. We are proud to represent the Kingdom’s commitment to the Vision 2030, with our most exciting innovation of 2023.”

The company provides direct and smooth integration with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart, Amazon, eBay, and a further 60 platforms through direct APIs.

Starlinks is the first in the region to offer a hybrid picking solution that allows humans and machines to co-deliver a world-class efficiency manual picking operation, thereby leading to an unrivalled solution for e-commerce fulfilment.