Sacmi Imola opens its new automated warehouse

Fully operational as of June 2026, the solution draws on the expertise and vision of the new Sacmi Intralogistics Business Unit. The first project in the ceramic sector is due to be launched at the end of the summer in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Sacmi Imola’s new automated warehouse is now fully operational following its start-up in June 2026. This strategic investment enhances the parent company’s internal logistics with an automated and digitalised solution designed to support Sacmi’s production departments.

The new Sacmi warehouse in figures

The new facility is 78 metres long, 27 metres high and 27 metres wide, occupying an area of 2,130 square metres, plus a further 2,000 square metres dedicated to goods reception. The warehouse consists of two separate storage units: one for pallets, extending over 20 levels and with a capacity of 15,000 pallet spaces, and the other for bins, extending over 48 levels with a total capacity of 24,000 spaces.

The entire logistics process is fully automated. Incoming pallets are transferred by shuttle to the warehouse, where the stacker crane collects them and places them in the storage areas. The goods reception area has up to eight workstations for preparing pallets and five for preparing bins, while an automated conveyor system reduces the need for forklift trucks, helping to improve operational efficiency and safety.

A tunnel connects the automated warehouse to the picking area via a system of lifts for the pallets and multi-level shuttles (MLS) for the bins. The solution has been designed to ensure excellent operational performance, with a handling capacity of up to 75 pallets per hour and 480 bins per hour. Lifting tables and weight-resetting devices improve workstation ergonomics, while a software simulator manages the filling and picking flows by identifying the most efficient routes.

Alongside performance, particular attention has also been devoted to sustainability. Compared with the previous warehouse, the new solution will reduce electricity consumption by 30%, equivalent to 14 TOE, and cut emissions by 23 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. The materials used also follow circular economy principles: the bins, which are a quarter the size of a pallet, are made from 20% to 50% recycled plastic obtained by recovering the caps produced by the presses during testing in the CCM department.

The new Sacmi Intralogistics Business Unit

The new warehouse in Imola showcases the vision and expertise of the Sacmi Intralogistics Business Unit. Following two years of investment and development in the field, the new unit is expanding its mission, positioning itself as a partner for Sacmi’s traditional business areas and for new industrial sectors. Its approach is centred on software architecture, process control and the integration of automation technologies.

In this context, the parent company’s automated warehouse is both an advanced solution serving production needs and a tangible demonstration of the expertise developed by Sacmi Intralogistics. It offers a modular and configurable system that integrates material handling technologies, automation and software platforms for flow management.

Following the first successful applications developed outside the sector and the start-up of the new Imola warehouse, the next step will take Sacmi Intralogistics into the Group’s core businesses. The first project in the ceramic sector, in Italy’s “Tile Valley”, is due to begin at the end of the summer. This new project marks a further step in the development of the company’s offering and maintains Sacmi’s approach of providing integrated solutions tailored to the customer’s specific needs, with a focus on digitalisation and process optimisation.