Locus Robotics, a warehouse automation company, has announced that a cold-storage hardware modification developed for HelloFresh has enabled the meal kit company to expand chilled fulfillment capacity from 100 SKUs to 500 SKUs – a fivefold increase that supports greater meal variety and new revenue opportunities across the HelloFresh brand portfolio.
Factor, a HelloFresh brand, first deployed 13 Locus Origin robots in July 2025 as part of an initial pilot. The deployment quickly demonstrated the execution consistency and reliability required for chilled fulfillment, with Locus Origin robots averaging a mission time of just 3 minutes and 36 seconds from order induction through box drop-off.
Following that strong early performance, HelloFresh expanded the deployment within three months with 26 additional Locus Origin robots, with plans to add EveryPlate fulfillment support later this year.
That mission speed is especially significant in temperature-controlled fulfillment, where every minute matters. Recent 3PL fulfillment-time benchmarks often measure performance in 30-minute, 60-minute, or multi-hour windows, underscoring the value of compressing a critical fulfillment movement into minutes.
Brad Mesloh, associate director, strategic design at HelloFresh, says: “Our customers expect more choice, more flexibility, and a consistently great experience.
“Delivering that in a chilled fulfillment environment requires precision, speed, and technology that can adapt to the complexity of our operations.
“Locus Robotics gave our teams a simple, easy-to-use AMR platform that was faster, safer, and required less space than other options we evaluated. The implementation was extremely smooth, with much of the testing completed virtually before go-live.
“Once the robots were on the floor, final validation took only a few days, making the deployment much quicker and simpler than our legacy systems.”
Refrigerated fulfillment creates a different set of demands for battery-powered robots. Cold temperatures can reduce battery efficiency over time and use, and HelloFresh’s operating model requires Locus Origin robots to remain inside chilled conditions for both work and charging.
To meet that challenge, Locus Robotics developed a heated motor enhancement and related charging modifications that support reliable, continuous operation in cold storage environments.
Jasmine Lombardi, chief customer officer, says: “HelloFresh is scaling one of the most demanding fulfillment models in the market: high volume, high variety, and temperature-controlled from start to finish.
“By increasing capacity and expanding automation across HelloFresh’s portfolio of brands, Locus Robotics is enabling greater meal choice for its customers while maintaining the speed and precision its fulfillment model demands.”
Locus Robotics supports approximately 12,000 square feet of HelloFresh’s chilled fulfillment space, including two high-speed meal kit picking lines.
In some workflows, Locus Origin robots move orders directly from induction to drop-off, helping HelloFresh move products faster while maintaining order tracking.
HelloFresh initially evaluated a larger integrated automation system involving two additional providers, but chose to begin with a focused Locus Robotics proof of concept.
The approach helped the team move faster, reduce upfront cost, and gain hands-on experience with Locus Origin robots in a live chilled fulfillment environment.
The deployment also helped HelloFresh avoid some of the constraints of traditional fixed conveyor systems, where a single failure can disrupt fulfillment flow.
With Locus Robotics, HelloFresh gained a more flexible automation model supported by compact robots, a simple picking interface, and a smart AMR platform designed to fit within existing operations.
