Denmark’s largest web shop for workwear, Billig-arbeidstøj.dk, has taken up the competition with Amazon and invested in an AutoStore robot warehouse from Element Logic. The facility helps Billig-arbeidstøj.dk to work smarter and keep up with consumers’ growing appetite for online shopping.

Ever since Billig-arbeidstøj.dk signed a contract with Element Logic for the delivery of an AutoStore robot warehouse end of March 2020, Denmark’s leading web shop for workwear has not looked back.

After just five months of delivery and installation, the warehouse was put into operation in early September 2020. Due to increased turnover during spring, the warehouse has been expanded spontaneously before commissioning, going from the planned 18 robots to 30 and from 20 000 bins to 30 000 bins.

Already on the first day of operation, the warehouse robots picked 1 200 orders, and the warehouse has recently been expanded with a fifth picking port.

“We are very impressed with the operational reliability of our AutoStore solution. We now have a facility that is adapted to our current needs in addition to peak seasons such as Black Friday and Christmas. We also have a warehouse that is incredibly easy to scale up for future growth – both in relation to robots, space and picking ports,” says Tommy Søndergaard, owner and CEO of Billig-arbeidstøj.dk.

Plans to triple revenue in five years

Growth is known in the Danish company. Since its founding in 2009, Billig-arbeidstøj.dk has thus won six Børsen Gazelle awards and expanded to Sweden, Norway, and the UK.

Today, the web shop contains Denmark’s largest online selection of workwear for all types of industries, and in addition there is a large assortment of work shoes as well as sports and leisure clothing.

AutoStore is one of the pillars of our goal of tripling revenue over the next five years. We must be able to manage picking and goods in the best possible way, so that we are as strong as possible towards competitors like Amazon and other external threats

Tommy Søndergaard, owner and CEO of Billig-arbeidstøj.dk

He expects to generate a revenue increase of DKK 40-50 million in 2020 compared to the 2019 revenue, which ended at DKK 81 million.

Works smarter

The AutoStore robot warehouse is currently filling up only just over half of a brand new 2 000 m² warehouse, which Billig-arbeidstøj.dk has built, so there is plenty of space to expand the facility.

At the same time, you can include the company’s manual warehouse, which today functions as a buffer warehouse for the AutoStore system.

“We can quadruple the capacity of the AutoStore without any problems if we need to,” says Tommy Søndergaard and elaborates:

“We are working much smarter now. We no longer need to get to the goods – they come to us. And the automated warehouse has given us a completely different flexibility and room for extra capacity.”

Space is no longer a barrier

According to Nikolaj Bjørn Eriksen, Managing Director of Element Logic Denmark, Billig-arbeidstøj.dk is an obvious example of how companies can use technology like AutoStore to create space for further growth – and at the same time increase efficiency and improve profitability.

“Space and storage capacity are often a barrier to growth for companies. With our solution, Billig-arbeidstøj.dk can store more goods per square meter and at the same time expand the warehouse within the framework of the existing warehouse, if there is a need for it,” says Nikolaj Bjørn Eriksen.