To support our growth, digital is crucial. We will continue to invest in the technologies of the future in 2021, as well as extend our portfolio of solutions, to transform the supply chain facilities alongside our customers.
Fives’ Smart Automation Solutions Division provides smart, scalable and sustainable solutions for advanced automation, handling and sorting.
Its thorough understanding of logistics processes and the objectives of its customers, combined with leading proprietary technologies, allow Fives to support industrial companies throughout the life cycle of their facilities, from design to dismantling. With its network of over 60 service centers worldwide, the Group offers a local service for customers when carrying out their projects.
Fives’ smart automation solutions serve a wide range of business sectors, from e-commerce to the manufacturing industry, including retail and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) , and even airports.
For over 60 years, Fives has developed innovative products and technologies, including some which have become market standards. The Group continues to innovate to improve its customers' competitiveness, operators' working conditions and environmental protection.
At the heart of ‘industry 4.0’ plants and warehouses, Fives ’management and control software optimizes logistics flows. Its digital services offer 360° monitoring for predictive maintenance; customer support becomes personalized and in real-time thanks to the Fives Connect platform.
With an order intake of nearly €670 million in 2020, up 16% on 2019, the Smart Automation Solutions Division is one of Fives' strongest growing businesses.
Driven in particular by the growth of e-commerce, it made progress in 2020 towards its strategic objectives: strengthening its digital expertise, developing its service offering, continuing its international development, particularly in the United States, and growth in the retail sector.
The Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly transformed consumer habits. In the context of a retail recession in 2020, online sales have boomed by nearly 30% with global turnover of €4,280 billion dollars*. Online shopping baskets were full of common consumer goods during lockdown.
The boom in e-commerce promises to continue beyond the pandemic, as new shopping habits take hold and companies capitalize on investments made in this sales channel.
A partner of the main e-merchants and retailers, notably the US leader in e-commerce which has renewed its confidence in 2020 with a dozen new contracts in Japan, Europe and the United States, Fives is supporting the industry’s transformations. Its scalable and high-performance systems optimize order processing. Its last-mile logistics solutions guarantee shorter delivery times, including same-day delivery.
The Group expanded its geographical footprint in 2020, with contracts for JD.Com in China and for a Russian e-commerce giant.
* “Global Ecommerce Update 2021” report, E-Marketer
