Symbotic is building SymBots into Walmart distribution automation

Walmart first worked with Symbotic at its Brooksville, Florida distribution center in 2017. The July 2021 agreement covered 25 additional regional distribution centers, and Walmart later expanded the program across all 42 regional distribution centers.

SymBots work inside the automated storage and retrieval layer of the Symbotic system, managing inventory in native cases or totes up to 60 pounds. Symbotic’s robot page records more than 2,200 SymBots on the job and more than 319 million total miles driven by SymBots.

The July 2023 GreenBox agreement added a warehouse-as-a-service route. SoftBank and Symbotic established the joint venture, and Symbotic announced an approximately $7.5 billion customer contract with GreenBox to provide Symbotic systems for the service model. That moves the company from selling automation into a possible shared infrastructure model for customers that do not want to own the full warehouse system.

Symbotic is led by chairman and CEO Rick Cohen, whose C&S Wholesale Grocers background ties the company to grocery distribution and high-volume case handling.

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