Nottingham based packaging giant, The Wilkins Group has invested a further £300,000 in automation with the purchase of three state-of-the-art robotic palletising machines for its end of line processing operations.
The investment is designed to increase flexibility at the final stage of production, where finished cartons are stacked, palletised and prepared for distribution.
Utilising laser scanners and high-speed operations, the three Unipal robotic palletising machines will give the Wilkins team greater flexibility to make fast stacking programme changes and eliminate downtime periods in end-of-line production process.
Aron Wilkins, joint managing director at the Wilkins Group, said:
“After seeing the Unipal robots in action in Germany, Automating this process of pallet stacking enables us to improve consistency and offer opportunities for some staff to take up the training we provide to machine operator roles as we continue to grow.”
The company initially purchased two robots from QTM Automation, and it was their performance that led to the purchase of a third, taking the total investment to £300,000.
Aron said:
“The range of these machines is incredible. They are fully automated and accurate. The first two machines were installed in July 2025. Once we’d fully experienced what they can do and their reliability, it was evident that we needed to invest in a third machine”.
The machines were supplied by QTM Automation, the German company behind the Unipal palletising system. They can handle the full range of our corrugated outer boxes from the lightest to the heaviest we produce.
Designed for end-of-line palletising, the Wilkins Group have positioned the robots after the gluing lines, where they handle the final process. One robot can stack finished cartons onto two pallets, supporting the final stage of production before being moved on for warehouse dispatch.
The Wilkins Group, which employs around 500 people globally, has a track record for reinvestment in the family-owned company. It invested £5.2m in a state-of-the-art three phase expansion of its Colwick headquarters in 2022. Further investment followed in 2023 with a £2.5m next-generation printing press, while recent spending has also included a £1.4m die-cutter to boost productivity and efficiency in production.
The latest robotics investment continues The Wilkins Group’s programme of upgrading production capacity and improving efficiency across its manufacturing operations.
Posted on 09 November 2026
