Gianni Girolami is Sales Director for Europe at ZS Robotics, a leading four-way shuttle solution provider now expanding in the European market.
Warehouse & Logistics News spoke to Gianni at LogiMAT: “We have delivered over 200 projects worldwide and are seeing strong demand in Europe. That is why we are at LogiMAT this year and why we will establish our subsidiary in the Netherlands in 2026. The demand is already there, and I am proactively looking for ways to further strengthen our presence in the market.”
What are your primary objectives at LogiMAT this year?
Our main goal is to showcase our four-way shuttle technology, proven across more than 200 global projects. We are here to connect with local integrators and end customers, share lessons from extensive deployments – including cold chain projects in pharma and food & beverage – and explore new collaboration opportunities. With our Netherlands subsidiary launching this year, LogiMAT is the ideal moment to say to the market: we are here, and we are serious about Europe.
What differentiates you from others in the sector?
We position ourselves as pallet AS/RS specialists, especially for complex and non-standard applications. Where many pallet handling solutions are geared to standard, repetitive scenarios, we go a step further by customising the solution to the customer’s real world.
In the UK, they sometimes call it “heavy and ugly” – the loads that don’t fit the standard template. For heavy-duty scenarios, our L2000 shuttle can handle loads up to 2.5 tonnes, versus a typical industry benchmark of around 1.5 tonnes. If requirements are higher, or pallet sizes are different, we can usually still accommodate them. We are shuttle specialists; when people cannot find a supplier for their product, they very often find a solution with us. Safety and ease of use are central to our philosophy.
In the UK, sustainability is a critical topic, and for us, safety is equally critical – the two mindsets align very well. In our product design, we aim to keep things simple but effective. One of the main challenges in shuttle automation and pallet handling is the risk of shuttles falling, especially at the lift interface when moving between levels. Traditionally, suppliers try to avoid misalignment with software, sensors, or light curtains. We took a different route: we built a mechanical key-and-lock system directly into the racking structure. This purely mechanical interlock ensures that the shuttle can only enter the lift when it is fully aligned, and the lift cannot operate unless the shuttle is correctly positioned, giving a fail-safe that is independent of software or sensors. It is a very simple idea, but very effective.
All our projects are delivered with integrators, so from day one we design our products to be easy for partners to implement. In Europe, most shuttle providers still rely on individual remote controls during implementation. A few years ago, we delivered a project with around 80 shuttles for a fashion brand – which would have meant 80 separate remotes, literally a bag full of them. That was the trigger for us to develop a tablet-based control system: one tablet to operate all the shuttles. It sounds simple, but it makes life much easier on site.
We offer safer and easier to use warehousing solutions. In our software, we are now launching a no-code map editor, which allows even non-technical users to create and modify layouts. This helps integrators reach a working solution faster and adapt it quickly when requirements change.
In your view, what are the most transformative innovations currently shaping the industry?
Shuttles themselves are one of the most transformative innovations in pallet handling. Historically, you mainly had VNAs and cranes. Shuttles are highly modular, which is crucial because customers want to scale in phases – phase one, phase two, and so on. With shuttle systems, you can start small and grow as your throughput increases.
They are also modular in terms of load handling: with one shuttle system, you can often manage different pallet sizes. If new pallet types appear later, shuttle systems can be adapted relatively easily to evolving operational requirements. Upgrading your warehouse becomes a simple, staged process. Modularity is key.
Energy efficiency is another major factor. If you compare shuttles to cranes, a crane moves one pallet but you need the energy to move the whole crane structure. With shuttles, small robots move within the racking, so you are essentially moving the weight of a single shuttle per pallet, which is far more energy-efficient.
Safety is particularly important in the shuttle segment because issues like shuttles falling can have serious consequences. We are a company that thinks “safety first” in the design phase, not as an afterthought.
Labour efficiency is also critical, especially in the UK market. After COVID and Brexit, the UK faced major labour shortages, and you see similar trends in countries like the Netherlands. I recently saw a statistic that about 40% of forklift drivers are over 50 years old, so part of the existing workforce is phasing out and younger workers are not replacing them in sufficient numbers. Across our projects, when customers adopt pallet automation, they typically see strong improvements in labour productivity and operational efficiency, and can significantly reduce reliance on manual forklift operations. Importantly, people who stop working as forklift drivers around 50 can often transition to lighter roles in the same company, such as quality control or operational supervision. It is a very labour-efficient way of working.
What are you doing internally and externally on sustainability?
Sustainability is built into our DNA, both at product and solution level, and energy is a major focus. We offer a fully electric solution; from the moment you start using our shuttles, you eliminate local emissions from that process. Some shuttle systems in the market still use hydraulic technology, but we do not. Being fully electric means no hydraulic oil, no leakage risk, and no associated contamination issues.
Safety is a priority. Our newest shuttle launched at LogiMAT, the H125, is a very compact, small shuttle and the first full-drive shuttle in the industry with 20 wheels. More wheels matter because in cold chain applications you have ice on the racks, and in brownfield sites you often have gaps or imperfections in the racking. With 20 wheels, you get much better grip, and with our solution we can bridge gaps of up to 100 millimetres, which shows how robust and smooth the operation can be. Sustainability and safety are built into the product from the start.
Clients typically ask about battery management and fire safety. We are the only supplier offering a semi-closed charging chamber based on a purely mechanical safety concept. It does not rely on software for safety control. When the charger overheats, a mechanical trigger activates, the chamber closes, and the risk is isolated. Inside the chamber there is a fire extinguisher to handle the incident. It is a very smart but simple solution that puts safety and sustainability at the centre of the design.
What strategies should the warehouse and logistics sector adopt to maximise efficiency?
The biggest challenges are throughput efficiency, warehouse density – especially in high-cost markets like the UK – and labour shortages. Shuttle systems directly support these areas by optimising labour use while improving throughput and storage density.
Today’s shuttle systems are at the high end of storage density and deliver very solid throughput. The big advantage is scalability: you can start with five shuttles and expand to 10, 15, or even hundreds as your throughput requirements grow.
What messages would you like visitors to take away from your stand?
Safety is in our DNA, but that working with us is easy – from implementation through to after-sales. Our software enables you to pinpoint faults in minutes and get back to normal operation quickly. Second, that our four-way shuttle technology is proven in over 200 projects worldwide and that we are now investing heavily in Europe, with our Netherlands subsidiary planned for launch in Q3 this year.
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