Grab™ | H.I. Giørtz
How H.I. Giørtz reduced operator strain with Grab™
H.I. Giørtz supplies groceries and food service products across Norway's west coast.
Together with ASKO — Norway's leading wholesaler — the company provides customers with access to a broad assortment from national and regional suppliers while continuing to improve service, support local employment, and operate more sustainably.
Challenges
As warehouse costs increased and labor-intensive processes became harder to sustain, Giørtz needed a more flexible way to improve efficiency — especially in heavy-item picking.
Giørtz was facing 3 pressures at once:
- Rising costs. By the early 2010s, warehouse continuous improvement had run its course. Wages grew at roughly twice the rate of consumer price index, squeezing margins.
- Workers under strain. Physically demanding picking roles made recruiting and retention hard. Giørtz wanted to support its team, not replace it, while keeping costs in check.
- Traditional automation was not the right fit. Building a new automated site wasn't sustainable or flexible enough for Giørtz's growth and seasonal swings. It also would not have solved one of the biggest cost drivers: picking heavy items such as bottled drinks.
Solution
Giørtz introduced Grab™ to automate the heaviest picking tasks during the night shift, while operators continued the rest of the picking in the morning.
The solution included:
- Two gripper types: a vacuum gripper for general cases and a mechanical gripper for bottles.
- A fully automated flow: a pallet dispenser feeds Grab™, and completed pallets move out by conveyor.
- One point of control: Solwr Trace WMS coordinates both robotic and manual picking in the same workflow.
Benefits
Grab™ took over the heaviest picks, which reduced physical strain on operators and made the workload easier to manage.
Because robots pick at night, employees start the morning shift with most of the heavy work already done. This makes the day-to-day work less tiring and support an overall better working environment in the warehouse.
Giørtz also achieved a clear efficiency gain. The company increased throughput with the same workforce. That gave the business more room to grow and made it easier to take on additional heavy-goods volume, with the transfer of Ringnes beverage logistic to them in March 2026.
What’s next: Giørtz now plans to run Grab™ on a double shift, from 16:00 to 07:00. With the same three robots, this will double the volume of heavy goods picked automatically, without adding more people to the operation.
Introducing Grab as our first automation made it clear that robotics is the future. We've since increased our investment in robotic solutions, and we continue looking at lightweight automation to add flexibility and efficiency.
Åge Rimstad
Associate Logistics Manager | H.I. Giørtz
