Colruyt sells autonomous forklift R&D to Germany's Kion

What's the deal? Belgian retailer Colruyt GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has sold a large part of its research and development for autonomous pallet trucks to German intralogistics group KionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The two companies jointly developed the autonomous forklifts, which Colruyt already uses in its operations.

What's the endgame? Kion plans to sell the jointly developed vehicles to third parties. The move turns an in-house retail tool into a commercial product for the wider logistics market.

Why now? Colruyt is narrowing its focus to retail, offloading robotics expertise it built in partnership with a specialist better placed to scale it.

The signal: The deal reflects a growing split in warehouse automation, where retailers hand off homegrown technology to dedicated intralogistics players rather than build and sell it themselves.

Read more: Lebensmittel Zeitung