Extor expands business area

Extor GmbH has already successfully established itself in tyre logistics with the RoverLog stacker cranes. Now the company wants to set new impulses in micro fulfilment and in the entire intralogistics with its clever storage systems.

More and more companies are opting for the introduction of automated systems in intralogistics. Extor’s RoverLog system offers warehouse solutions for goods with high turnover rates and low logistics margins. The Hanover-based company was founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of the online tyre retailer Delticom in order to develop an individual and intelligent solution for in-house tyre storage and logistics.

The basic idea behind the RoverLog system was to store large-volume goods in a space-saving, automated, flexible and cost-effective manner in the smallest of spaces. It was introduced as an alternative to the storage and picking infrastructure for tyres that previously had to be transported to their destination via conveyor belts or picked with forklifts.

Jörn von der Lippe, managing director of Extor GmbH, has now taken over all of the company’s shares from the parent company and was able to gain NBank as a further shareholder, which now holds 15% of the shares.

“The idea and implementation of the RoverLog concept is so good and so successful that we are growing and want to transfer it to other areas,” confirms the robotics specialist and business economist von der Lippe. The concept is unique in many areas and has some advantages over comparable systems: products that can be placed in cargo containers can be seven times as large as those of the competition. In addition, the moving cars are able to travel over essentially unlimited distances within the storage system – and that with availability around the clock.

A kind of rail network runs underneath the storage areas, on which wagons move at a speed of up to 2.4m/s and through which they receive their electricity. The resulting braking and kinetic energy is reused by means of recuperation.

With the spin-off, the start-up is in a position to open up further industries and to address interested parties who have previously been in competition. The company produces small to medium-sized series itself.

“Intralogistics is in the transition from large, rigid systems to modular, flexible and data-based solutions,” confirms Martin Ranic, investment manager at NBank Capital. “Extor stands for a team with a visionary idea.”