Benetton Group has direct control of the logistics phase for both own-manufactured and sourced products. It has invested in modelling, organization, and automation of logistics processes in order to completely integrate the entire production cycle, from client orders to packing and delivery.
Automated Sorting System
The state-of-the-art logistics operation at Castrette (Italy) has an innovative, fully automated sorting system, whose propulsion is based on electromagnetic fields. Castrette alone can handle individual orders for about 5,000 Benetton shops worldwide.
Folded and hanging garments are automatically sorted, packed into boxes and sent through a one-kilometre tunnel to the Automated Distribution Centre.
Automated Distribution Centre
The Automated Distribution Centre covers an area of 30,000 square metres, with a total capacity of 800,000 boxes, and can handle 80,000 boxes daily with a workforce of only 28.
The finished product is sent directly to the Group's about 4,000 stores worldwide.
Autostore®
At the Castrette logistics hub a new automated warehouse, Autostore®, has been built, with a view to enhancing e-commerce while optimizing storage capacity and order completion.
The new platform, which meets the needs of both B2B and e-commerce, makes pickup operations more efficient, flexible, and agile; it reduces the space required and the pickup times and extends the useful life of logistics facilities. This is a high-performance, very compact, easily expandable, and energy-efficient facility with a high degree of safety.
The system provides storage for more than 60’000 containers over an area of 6’000 sq m. A total of 53 robot cranes move from the roof of the facility, lifting the containers and taking them to the 12 picking and packing stations located at the front of the facility, where workers can now work more comfortably without moving for long distances.