Universal Robots announces four new distributors

Collaborative robots manufacturer Universal Robots (UR) has announced the signing of four new partnerships with robotics distributors selling to industries across Australia and New Zealand. The signings bring the total number of ANZ UR partnerships to seven.

UR’s new local distributors are Foodmach, Visy Automation, Mobile Automation and Products for Industry.

According to Shermine Gotfredsen, general manager, Universal Robots, Southeast Asia & Oceania, UR’s recent partnership signings reflect rising demand amongst ANZ industries within manufacturing, packaging and food processing for automated solutions, in the face of increasingly competitive global markets.

“ANZ manufacturers are challenged with high local labour costs, so increasingly they are looking for innovative ways to drive efficiencies and keep expenditures down. Automating processes is now viewed as vital in order to compete on a regional and international scale.

Foodmach’s Rym Kachouri agrees that fierce competition is driving investment in cobots: “In order to remain competitive, Australian manufacturers need to increase their investment in automation. Collaborative robots allow many repetitive factory tasks to be automated — safely and flexibly.”

Visy Automation’s Derek Ford says companies both big and small are growing increasingly interested in cobots: “As a system integrator we are seeing that both big and small business are interested in what cobots can do for them. It is also opening new opportunities where we just didn’t consider automation previously.”

Gotfredsen says the adoption of automation in the ANZ market has not yet reached the scale of Asian counterparts. “A lack of information and awareness of available automation options still provide a significant hindrance to Australian and New Zealand manufacturers achieving greater levels of innovation,” said Gotfredsen.