Nottingham-based L-A-C Logistics Automation Company is proud to be one of the UK’s leading systems integrators for warehouse automation. Our UK manufacturing capabilities fully support our expertise in the design, development, and installation of innovative warehouse automation and software solutions for a wide range of industries including e-commerce, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, 3PL, Grocery, and Retail. Our proficiency spans Robotics, Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems, Conveyor Systems and Conveyor Modules, enabling warehouses to enhance operations ready to meet current and future logistics challenges. With an ever-growing team, L-A-C remains committed to driving innovation for warehouse automation solutions that support and contribute to a positive and sustainable future.

Neil Parry
Business Lead Robotics & Automation at L-A-C

Neil Parry, Business Lead Robotics & Automation at L-A-C Logistics Automation spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.

What are your best-known products/solutions/services?

Since our inception nearly 30 years ago, L-A-C quickly became established for our range of high-quality conveyor modules and conveyor systems. However, the business quickly evolved to provide large-scale automation projects using our broad portfolio of advanced automation technologies and solutions. Our systems are backed by our domain expertise across multiple sectors such as food & beverage, e-commerce, and manufacturing, particularly with respect to robotics and flexible automation.

We also pride ourselves on a long-term commitment to our customers, supporting them across the project lifecycle and offering exceptional aftercare and continuous improvement services.

How do you think your industry sector is performing at the moment?

It’s been a strange 12 months. Enquiries are still very high but lots of businesses have been holding off investment. We are lucky that we have a broad offering and therefore can service many sectors. Also, we have some very strong key accounts and they have kept us busy. Investment by retailers seemed to drop off but the manufacturing sector has been buoyant and they tend to be highly bespoke applications which suits us well.

How many markets are you in and what is your biggest market?

L-A-C’s market focus is balanced given that our expertise applies to multiple sectors, primarily e-commerce, retail, post & parcel, grocery, food and beverage, and manufacturing.

In what ways does your company stand out from its competitors?

Having the access and capability to deliver best-in-class technologies through our partner eco-system is critical to our continued success, enabling us to place the customers’ interests as our foremost priority. That said, it’s the people at L-A-C and our team ethos that truly make the difference when executing projects, enabling us to fully align with our customers’ specific requirements, and ensuring that our automation solutions deliver on their business objectives. This is a complex industry and often it’s not really technology that sets companies apart, it’s the people and their ability to work with complexity in the design and implementation phases.

What are your most recent product innovations?

Taking our robotics division as an example, we have helped many of our customers address the more commonplace robotic applications, such as material handling and end-of-line pick, pack and palletise applications. Certainly, over recent years and in 2024 particularly, our customers are now seeking our expertise in more complex application areas and we’ve developed a number of innovative solutions for high-speed picking and re-packing within the 3PL and Food & Beverage sectors. We have also just delivered a solution for a leading 3PL encompassing Exotec and a unique outbound Put-to-Light integration.

What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?

Across all our focused sectors, especially in warehousing and logistics, the availability and retention of labour remain the key concern of our customers. Add to this the need for increased productivity, flexibility, sustainability, and welfare, it is clear that automation and robotics have an ever-increasing role in addressing these challenges and driving future investment. In order to support our customers in their automation adoption, L-A-C continues to expand our solution capabilities across each sector, enabling us to act as a total automation partner.

Can you tell us about any recent customer contract wins or projects and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?

We have just completed a solution for Greggs for automatically stacking and wrapping sausage rolls. It’s a fantastic solution and the complexity was in the gripper design. One of our graduates developed the solution from scratch and seeing this come to life on-site and work efficiently was a proud moment.

How do your business levels in 2024 compare to previous years?

We have had another record year which is just incredible given the circumstances of a challenging marketplace. Over the last two years, we have invested heavily in our business and this is paying off. Our business is all about people!

What is your strategy for growth and success in 2025?

For 2025 we will continue to strengthen our range of standard, application-specific products and systems for each of our focused market sectors, including further development of our standard conveyor range, robotic end-of-line systems, and bespoke automation. We shall also focus on optimising our advanced software platform so that it offers tailored functionality to deliver operational efficiency and business intelligence across our customers’ complete value chain. We are also looking to expand into mainland Europe with our Motion Tech partners. The main un-blocker to delivering solutions abroad was local service provision however this is now possible and it’s an exciting time for our business.

Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances?

As well as standardising our in-house range of hardware and software solutions, we continue to forge strategic relationships with class-leading third-party technology partners. As an example, in robotics we look forward to being able to offer advanced systems in mixed case palletising and de-palletising, high-speed picking, re-packing, co-packing, AMRs, as well as making Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning a key differentiator. We are seeing more hybrid solutions involving many technologies so our software capability is growing rapidly. We have also raised our investment in R&D and will be releasing some news in 2025 on some new products… watch this space!

Are you investing in staff training and skills development and can you give examples?

At L-A-C our culture is one where people come first; not just our customers but equally the development of our team, so that they are empowered and feel supported to be able to deliver the business’ needs as well as their own personal growth. Whilst we will continue to recruit seasoned industry specialists, it is also crucial to develop the next generation. L-A-C will continue to work closely with a number of regional universities to recruit new talent, on-board and nurture them with a major focus on mentorship whilst supporting them to work on live projects.

What work are you doing in the area of sustainability?

Sustainability remains a key driver for our customers and is central to investment decisions. Therefore, our solution design focuses on key aspects of improving operational efficiency, process quality, and waste reduction, enabling the introduction of sustainable packaging, and reduced power consumption, for example through our standard conveyor range which offers significant savings on power consumption.

Will you be investing in your premises over the next 12 months?

Yes, we are bringing online some more manufacturing capacity and if we continue to grow at this rate we will be in new premises within 18 months.

How future-proof and flexible are your solutions?

We are seeing much more demand for hybrid solutions with multiple technologies. Flexibility is created not just from the technology but the software which is why we are investing so heavily in our warehouse control software.

What exhibitions can we expect to see your company exhibiting at in 2025?

We have several opportunities throughout 2025 to showcase L-A-C at events in the UK. Our current planned list of exhibitions includes Robotics & Automation, part of Intralogistex (March – NEC, Birmingham), Tomorrow’s Warehouse (June – CBS Arena, Coventry), and IMHX (September – NEC, Birmingham).

How would you sum up your company in three words?

Expertise, Innovative and Reactive.

L-A-C

0115 975 3300

sales@lacgroup.co.uk

www.lacconveyors.co.uk

 

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