More than 100 robots now help prepare online groceries at the Collect&Go distribution centre in Londerzeel

October 29, 2026

Today, Collect&Go unveiled a brand-new automation system at its distribution centre in Londerzeel, in the presence of Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele and the Mayor of Londerzeel, Nadia Sminate. As pioneer and market leader in online groceries, Collect&Go is further strengthening its lead. 134 robots provide extra capacity, greater availability, more efficiency and an even higher-quality, more reliable service for customers. They will help prepare orders up to five times faster and make Londerzeel one of the most advanced e-commerce distribution centres for food products in Belgium. Colruyt Group's online grocery service is investing 19 million euros in the largest Exotec installation in Belgium, a technology used worldwide by leading e-commerce players. The automation enables Collect&Go to sustainably meet growing customer demand for online groceries at the lowest prices, while preserving the added value of human expertise.

The online food market has evolved significantly in recent years: online grocery shopping has become a fixture in the daily lives of many Belgians. Today, 1 in 2 Belgians uses an online grocery service, and its importance is expected to keep growing. As a pioneer and market leader for more than 25 years, Collect&Go is deliberately choosing to help shape that growth.

Colruyt Group no longer sees online groceries as an additional service, but as a full and structural part of how Belgians do their shopping. To keep pace with this growth, the company is investing 19 million euros in automation. 134 robots are being deployed at the Londerzeel distribution centre, making its logistics operations ready for the future.

Collect&Go orders are prepared both in Colruyt stores and in two e-commerce distribution centres, in Londerzeel and Erpe-Mere. At the Londerzeel distribution centre, which opened in 2021 and prepares Collect&Go orders with Colruyt and Bio-Planet products for 50 pick-up points and home delivery, Exotec's innovative technology is a crucial lever to further build Collect&Go's market leadership and offer the lowest online prices to even more customers.

Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele attended the presentation of the innovation: "Our prosperity tomorrow depends on our productivity today. Flanders has everything it takes to remain among Europe's frontrunners in digitalisation, automation and robotisation. Investments like this one by Collect&Go show how we can turn that technological lead into productivity growth: working faster and more efficiently, creating more capacity and deploying people on tasks where their expertise truly makes a difference. In this way, innovation and entrepreneurship reinforce each other."

Thanks to the automation, Collect&Go will be able to serve significantly more customers in the coming years: every year, 15 additional Collect&Go pick-up points will be supplied from Londerzeel. Collect&Go's availability will grow faster as a result, and the service will become even more reliable, with higher quality thanks to additional checks. Within 5 years, the automation should double the capacity in Londerzeel.

Stefan Goethaert, CEO of Colruyt Group, is proud of what the robots mean for employees and customers: "For many Belgians, online grocery shopping has become second nature. As market leader, we continue to invest to make the next generation of online groceries possible. With this automation, we are already building the capacity, quality and speed we will need tomorrow to make online grocery shopping at the lowest prices easier for even more customers. The technology makes the work of our colleagues in the distribution centre more ergonomic and efficient. Automatic checks on quantities and best-before dates improve the quality of our customers' orders. By automating repetitive tasks, we create room for work where human expertise and attention make the difference, such as extra quality checks and the efficient packing of goods into the folding crates. People and machines go hand in hand."

For the automation, Collect&Go chose Exotec's Skypod system. Robots automatically retrieve products from the racks and bring them to the employees, who then check the groceries and place them in the Collect&Go folding crates. The automated storage structure has 40,000 rack locations and will soon house up to 200 robots.

Since the launch in the spring, a growing share of the Collect&Go range has been processed through the automation. Today, this already covers more than 80% of the total Colruyt and Bio-Planet range. Collect&Go thus confirms its role as pioneer and market leader in online groceries and is gearing up for the next growth phase of e-commerce in Belgium.

Tale a look at this video as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evKaDM27EkQ