Case Study
Varner
Varner Leads Automated Warehouse Fashion Distribution
Country
Sweden
Industry
Retail
Partner
Swisslog
Varner, one of Scandinavia's largest fashion retailers, set out to build the world’s most advanced automated warehouse to support its extensive network of brick-and-mortar stores and online customers across Europe. After implementing the AutoStore system in 2016, Varner successfully achieved its goal, eventually expanding the facility twice to optimize it for high-speed order fulfillment.
Founded in Oslo in 1962, Varner has grown into one of Europe’s leading fashion groups, generating an annual revenue of $1.1 billion in 2023. The family-owned company operates 1,150 stores across four countries and has a strong online presence in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Austria, and Germany.
Varner’s portfolio includes brands like Cubus, Dressmann, Dressmann XL, Bik Bok, Carlings, Volt, Junkyard, and Levi’s Store (franchise). While primarily focused on private-label apparel, the company also manages multi-brand stores featuring well-known international names such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, The North Face, and New Balance.
Before 2016, each of Varner's brands operated from separate manual warehouses across Europe. To streamline operations, Varner built a 500,000-sf automated distribution center in Vänersborg, Sweden, which serves as a central hub for the group.
At the heart of this facility are three interconnected AutoStore Grids, complemented by a range of advanced hardware technologies that provide a comprehensive omni-channel solution for storage, distribution, goods receiving, palletizing, de-palletizing, sorting, hanging garments, consolidation, and dispatch.
“We aimed to build the best warehouse in the world,” states Anders Eriksson, Varner’s Supply Chain Director. “Challenging ourselves in this way was crucial to our vision."
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The warehouse features an integrated system of conveyors, sorters, and robots that manage the efficient movement of goods throughout the facility. These components also facilitate tasks such as sequencing, palletizing, depalletizing, and dispensing, enabling the 80 to 100 employees to perform their roles more effectively.
“The state-of-the-art warehouse has been designed to enhance customer service by ensuring maximum product availability, precise delivery, and reduced lead times,” Eriksson explains. The system is also highly adaptable, allowing it to meet both current and future demands.
The warehouse includes two high-bay areas for temporary buffering. Palletized bulk is stored within a seven-crane pallet handling automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) with 48,000 pallet locations. Pallets are unwrapped and the separate cartons are conveyed to an adjacent, 22-crane case handling mini-load AS/RS with a 500,000-carton capacity.
Cartons are taken out of the mini-load storage, as needed, and sent direct for shipping or induction into the AutoStore Grids. The AutoStore Grids also receive whole cases directly from receiving. From the AutoStore Ports, workers pack orders into polybags or lidded corrugated containers. The polybags are shipped to multi-line e-commerce orders and the containers are shipped to brick-and-mortar stores for restocking.
Varner’s AutoStore system is powered by Swisslog, a collaboration that Eriksson describes as exceptionally successful. “We’ve achieved a flexible, cost-effective, ergonomic, and environmentally friendly solution in our warehouse,” he adds.
In many warehouses merchandise is packed into storage containers. But in the clothing industry, this isn’t always practical. Some items like suit coats or dresses can’t be folded or compacted to fit into containers.
These items are sorted directly to the garment-on-hanger (GOH) to preserve quality. When orders are received, workers are directed by voice commands on which items to pick. The items are placed on a central conveyor line, delivered to a labeling area, and then loaded onto trucks.
In this way, Varner relies on the AutoStore system for its maximum storage density and throughput while utilizing the GOH section’s conventional picking method to ensure that delicate garments reach shoppers in the best condition possible.
Rapid growth in online sales prompted Varner to expand its warehouse capacity just a few years after the initial installation of the AutoStore system. The upgraded central distribution center opened in 2020 adding an additional Grid with 112 Robots to respond quickly to changing customer demands.
In 2023, Varner commissioned its third and largest AutoStore Grid, featuring 323 Robots, 25 CarouselPorts, 21 ConveyorPorts, and 330,023 Bins, all managed by Swisslog’s SynQ software. This 19,000-sqm expansion has enabled the warehouse to handle 7,500 order lines per hour, giving the company even more delivery speed for online customers.
“The state-of-the-art warehouse has been designed to enhance customer service by ensuring maximum product availability, precise delivery, and reduced lead times.”
AutoStore can fit any warehouse or fulfillment center. Make yours the next.
