Name: Exotec Skypod (Next Gen)
Brand: Exotec

Who's exposed

Jobs in the threat radius

warehouse order picker
e-commerce pick-and-pack associate
store-replenishment picker

Deployment status

Shipping, and installed at scale. Exotec says Skypod runs at more than 200 warehouse sites for over 50 brands; an earlier company release gave 135-plus, so the count is growing fast or counted differently, and in either case it is company-reported. Named customers: Decathlon, Carrefour, UNIQLO, GXO (for Guess), TRUSCO NAKAYAMA, Mitsubishi Shokuhin, and Oxford Industries, which runs 450-plus robots handling more than 20 million units a year. Independent evidence: FreightWaves reported Decathlon installing 55 Skypods across 30 locations, and Robotics247 recorded Exotec passing $1B in systems sold at MODEX 2024. The company said it secured more than 20 projects worth about $400M while deploying the Next Gen system quietly over two years. Exotec does not disclose revenue. Customer results quoted by Exotec include picking speed up 60% and order wait times down over 70%; those are customer claims published by the vendor.

When this hits the labor market

1-3 years: goods-to-person systems take the walking out of order picking. The picker who covers kilometers of aisle per shift is replaced by a station worker who scans, grabs and packs, and the headcount per unit shipped falls. 3-5 years: the Next Gen design adds a robot-to-robot picking station, which is a step toward removing the station worker as well; the human role then shrinks to exceptions and replenishment. Retail replenishment is the quieter exposure, since Decathlon and Carrefour use the same system to pick for stores. The pace depends on capex: these are multi-million dollar installations, so the work disappears site by site as new buildings open, not across the whole industry at once.

Not one robot, a system of them

Skypod is a goods-to-person warehouse system. Robots shuttle containers between storage racks and picking workstations, and people stay at the stations instead of walking the aisles. The French maker says it runs at more than 200 sites for over 50 brands. That is a company claim, and an earlier company release put the figure at 135-plus. Named customers include Decathlon, Carrefour, UNIQLO, GXO, TRUSCO NAKAYAMA and Mitsubishi Shokuhin. Oxford Industries, the parent of Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer, runs 450-plus robots handling 20 million units a year.

What independent sources show

FreightWaves reported Decathlon putting in 55 Skypods across 30 locations. Robotics247 logged Exotec passing $1B in systems sold at MODEX 2024. In February 2025 the company launched a Next Gen Skypod: a more compact robot, a robot-to-robot picking station and denser racking, with claims of 50% more throughput at one workstation and up to 30% more storage density. It said it had quietly won more than 20 projects worth about $400M over the previous two years. Revenue stays undisclosed.

For cohort: Geek+ says it held 23% of global order-fulfillment mobile robots in Interact Analysis’ 2025 report, and Hai Robotics reported RMB 2.017B in 2025 revenue. Exotec is the European name in the same race, and it sells whole systems rather than a fleet of robots.

What it threatens

The job at risk is the walking picker. In a goods-to-person building the work that remains is at the station: scan, grab, pack. It is faster and more repetitive, which is what makes it the next thing to automate, and the robot-to-robot station in the Next Gen design points straight at that. Exotec’s quoted customer results, picking speed up 60% and order waits down over 70%, come from the vendor’s own publishing, so we treat them as marketing evidence and not as audited figures.

Why we track it

Our catalog already carries Geek+, Hai Robotics, AutoStore and Locus. Without Exotec the map of warehouse automation had a hole in Europe and in apparel and sporting goods retail, where Decathlon and UNIQLO deploy it. Watch whether the site count holds up under an independent source, and whether the robot-to-robot station ships at scale.