Way far north, then up the stairs at Vakre Vene

Vakre Vene, located in the city center of Harstad, Norway, has just adopted the world's northernmost robots for warehouse automation. Their Pio system is based on the second floor of an old bank building, which also serves as the home of their retail shop.

Vakre Vene sells fashionable clothes all over Norway, both in-store and online. Their growth has been steady and 2022 saw their strongest year in sales yet — a real success story!

However, this success has not been a cakewalk — it has been difficult to scale their operation to meet the increased demand for their products. Operating the ecommerce side of their business became a massive time drain, with the founders chipping all their free time to ensure their team was able to keep up with the volume.

To finally be able to enjoy the fruits of our hard work is very nice

As their inventory grew and grew, and they not only had to look for a solution to keep up with the demand, but also to find space for all their merchandise. Investing in Pio, they were able to solve both of those problems and are finally able to enjoy their success. At the same time, they can now compete on the same terms as large global companies by eliminating order backlog without having to invest in a larger warehouse space.

“To finally be able to enjoy the fruits of our hard work is very nice. Now I can go on holiday with my family, while knowing that the customers will receive their orders on time,” – Richard Bendiksen, Owner and General Manager

Pio has made a huge difference

For a long time, they had a dream to start their own store. Now, they’re proud to say that they’ve fulfilled that dream as a Northern Norwegian company that has seen great success and is able to continue growing thanks to installing Pio.

“For us, Pio has made a huge difference in our ability to deliver quickly to our customers. Over the weekend, the robots prepare and fulfill the same number of orders that previously took us three days to finish. I cannot stress enough how incredibly important it is that customers receive their items quickly. We can now do this thanks to our robots.”