Global fashion company BESTSELLER will partner with KNAPP, an industry leader in automation, to deliver technology, including more than 1,400 robots, for the company’s upcoming logistics centre in the Netherlands.

Located in Lelystad, 60 km east of Amsterdam, the 155,000 m2 logistics centre will be built over the coming years. Logistics Center West (LCW) as the building is known, will feature cutting-edge technology to enhance efficiency and create optimal working conditions.

Automated piece picking and palletizing, an automated pallet storage and handling system, and more than 1,400 robots optimising fulfilment in the robotic shuttle system, are some of the new technologies KNAPP will implement at LCW.

A new scale of automation technology

The increased scale of automation technology set to be developed at the centre will deliver a high level of efficiency. The company expects that the centre will operate at more than 20,000 retrievals per hour, a significantly higher capacity than the system at the company’s largest current centre.

"The ambition for this logistics centre is one-touch automation, where products are received, processed, and shipped using limited manual handling. The dynamic solutions result in increased efficiency and reduced risk of redundancy caused by single machine malfunction in storing and retrieving items," says Allan Kyhe Kjærgaard.

Automation of picking products in fashion has traditionally been more difficult than in other industries. These are difficult for robots to select and manipulate compared to harder items with flat surfaces. At LCW, picking robots powered by AI learning technology will supplement the work done at manual picking stations. 

New jobs created

When LCW is fully operational at the end 2026, it is expected that 600 colleagues will be employed there. More than half will work hand in hand with robots. Automation will result in significantly easing physically demanding tasks such as loading pallets, while helping reduce the need for repetitive manual labour.

At the same time, the investment in automation technology will create new jobs requiring a highly skilled workforce. Types of jobs include maintenance technicians, data analysts, mechanical, electrical and software engineers, as well as process and continuous improvement specialists.
  • Located in Lelystad, 60 km east of Amsterdam, the 155,000 m2 logistics centre will be built over the coming years. Logistics Center West (LCW) as the building is known, will feature cutting-edge technology to enhance efficiency and create optimal working conditions.
  • Constructing the logistics centre will create approximately 600 highly skilled jobs and will greatly expand the company’s supply chain and support its growth. This will bring BESTSELLER closer to wholesale customers in Europe’s largest retail markets.
  • KNAPP will be responsible for the materials handling at LCW.
  • Robots will be used to automate tasks requiring physically demanding and manual labour. Also, robotics and digitalisation make warehouse an interesting place to work, creating new job opportunities such as maintenance engineers, data analysts etc.
  • The building was designed and engineered by Henning Larsen and Rambøll
  • BESTSELLER expects the centre to be operational at the end of 2026.
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