Robot-operated warehouse delivers the goods for Decathlon

Global retailer Decathlon, owner of the Caperlan fishing brand, has opened its first store in Western Canada – complete with a robot-operated warehouse.

The 63,00 square foot location in Calgary has a 7,000 square foot automated warehouse serviced by 27 robots. They move around on a large overhead grid, under which product storage bins are stacked.

“Robots drive on top of the grid and basically bring products from the storage areas to an operator,” explained Cody Cassie, of Bastion Solutions, the technology company that set up the storage retrieval system. “This system is pretty unique,” he told CBC News. “We have about 5,000 bins that store around 11,000 SKUs.”

Decathlon says the store will have 7,000 products from over 65 sports, including fishing. It also has experiential zones, a gymnasium, a café and a workshop area for servicing products. The store, which opened on November 6th, will serve as the distribution centre for the fulfillment of Decathlon’s online orders in Western Canada.

The retailer now has ten locations in Canada and 1,709 stores in 60 countries as of August this year.