Tompkins Robotics Credits New Products for 93% Revenue Growth in 2022
The provider of distribution, sortation, and fulfillment automation also grew its team in the past year.
Tompkins Robotics this week said that its annual revenue for 2022 increased by 93% from the previous year. The Orlando, Fla.-based company credited innovations in its tSort sortation line and its subscription financing model for its growth.
In addition, Tompkins Robotics announced that its employee headcount grew by 23% last year. The company said its automation can improve supply chain speed and efficiency, as well as help attract and retain employees by making work easier, safer, and more interesting.
“There has been an explosion in the number of individual items picked for e-commerce orders and the need for real-time replenishment throughout the supply chain network,” stated Mike Futch, president and CEO of Tompkins Robotics. “Automation solutions that are flexible and scalable are key in allowing sustainable growth and profitability for a company.”
Warehouses need more automation
Of the estimated 20,000 warehouses in the U.S., only 20% are using some level of automation, Futch noted. The global market for logistics automation could expand from $41.5 billion in 2019 to $91.7 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5%, according to The Insight Partners.
The rise in e-commerce and direct-to-consumer purchasing has put pressure on brands and sellers, said Tompkins Robotics. Automation remains the No. 1 way to address this challenge, asserted Futch, with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) among the fastest-growing technologies in warehouses and retail environments.
Tompkins said its primary system, tSort, consists of AMRs that can sort a wide range of items and parcels to consolidation points for order fulfillment, store replenishment, returns, and parcel distribution. It claimed that tSort “is a truly modular, scalable, and portable robotic sortation system that helps build world-class supply chains while providing unmatched flexibility and throughput.”
The vendor added that its systems can maximize performance, making clients “more agile, adaptable, profitable, and successful in today's dynamic marketplace.”
tSort innovations and RaaS help customers scale
Tompkins Robotics said it designed tSort to be “elegantly simple” and provide a convenient “point of entry” for companies with limited budgets, space, and resources to implement and manage automation. The sortation system is intended to be reliable and easy to use, so it does not require sophisticated maintenance, IT, or engineering staffers to maintain the systems, it said.
That in turn can reduce the service lifecycle and total cost of ownership, said the company. Tompkins said its innovations include the tSort3D sortation system, the xChange unit-sortation system, and the new tSort Induction Lift.
The company said its robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model also contributed to its growth. RaaS gives customers a subscription-based pricing and service alternative to the traditional capital equipment purchase and support model, explained Tompkins.
This option conserves capital, converts investment to an operating cost, and allows a customer to “pay as they go” for the use of the system, the company said. RaaS also enables customers to quickly and easily scale their robot fleets up or down in response to changing market conditions or seasonal demand, said Tompkins Robotics.
