Czech retailer’s robots clean 20 million square metres

Albert, said to be one of the Czech Republic’s largest retail brands, says its fleet of autonomous mobile robots have officially cleaned over 20 million square metres (215 million square feet), completing over 92,000 cleaning routes.

The industrial cleaning robots were implemented across Albert’s Czech Republic hypermarkets and two distribution centres. During 2023, Albert says it will “almost double” the number of stores with robot deployments for the robots.

Albert, an Ahold Delhaize local brand, released the figure in partnership with Brain Corp and Tennant Co, who supply and develop the robots and software.

Pavel Klemera, operations support manager at Albert, says: “Last year we put a number of autonomous scrubbers into operation and this year we plan to continue to scale up their use. Altogether, almost double the number of robots will be operating in our stores by the end of March.

“Robots clean precisely, don’t skip any space and help our employees to save their effort so, they can use the time to elevate our customer’s experience.“

Having deployed its fleet of BrainOS-powered Tennant T380AMR and T7AMR autonomous scrubbers during the second half of 2022, Albert has fully automated the task of cleaning floors throughout its stores.

With the combination of best-in-class equipment from Tennant and Brain Corp’s advanced AI automation platform, BrainOS, the autonomous robots are not only able to clean while safely and efficiently navigating within dynamic public retail environments, they also provide a suite of fleet management tools.

These include BrainOS Mobile, which enables store managers to easily track machine operation and performance and ensure work is being carried out on schedule and to a consistently high level.

Michel Spruijt, chief revenue officer at Brain Corp, says: “With the current speed of evolution within the industry, the smartest retailers are increasingly acting like technology companies.

“Through their national deployment of AMRs, the team at Albert have clearly demonstrated their highly progressive approach to supporting workforces and future-proofing their store operations using the very latest innovations that technology has to offer.”

Bruno Ferraty, senior manager strategic accounts EMEA at Tennant Co, says: “Our partnership with Albert stores is a great example of the immediate impact a successful integration of robotic floor scrubbers can have on daily store operations.

“We have a keen focus on providing our customers with the very best tools, able to help them run their operations effectively and efficiently and are excited to continue working with pioneering retailers like Albert and others across the globe.”