Joloda Named in Fast Growth Index

Joloda Hydraroll, a company that specialises in trailer loading and unloading solutions, has been recognised as the 32nd fastest-growing business in the North of England. This is part of the Fast Growth 50 index for 2023, which identifies the fifty fastest-growing companies across six nations and regions, including the North of England. This achievement underlines Joloda Hydraroll’s significant impact on the North of England’s economy and its capacity for growth and innovation.

The Fast Growth 50 is an annual index that identifies the top 50 fastest-growing companies in six nations and regions, including the North of England. This year’s index for the North of England has highlighted businesses from multiple sectors that together generated a turnover of £1 billion, at an average growth rate of 199 per cent, with the creation of over 4,789 jobs last year.

Role in the North of England’s Business Scene

Being part of the Fast Growth 50, Joloda Hydraroll has shown strong performance and made a positive contribution to the North of England’s business community. Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, Founder Fast Growth 50, said: “The UK Fast Growth 50 Index demonstrates that a small number of fast growth firms, such as Joloda Hydraroll, make a substantial contribution to the UK’s economic landscape, providing real examples of how innovation, enterprise and sheer hard work can make a real difference in all sectors from construction to financial services to technology. Their incredible growth during difficult times shows that through generating wealth and jobs in their local communities, entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of regional and national prosperity. Most important of all, their success stories demonstrate the impact of ambition and adaptability, providing a blueprint for sustainable growth that will hopefully inspire others to follow a similar journey.”

This year’s Fast Growth 50 North of England list is in partnership with UBS, the world’s leading and truly global wealth manager.

Mark Goddard, Head of UK Regions at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “Business owners and entrepreneurs are the engine of our economy, and UBS has a long history advising and connecting them on each stage of their wealth journey, helping them to unlock their potential. Led by entrepreneurial spirit and often solving some of the UK’s biggest issues, the level of talent and innovation uncovered through this year’s list shows that more needs to be done to support small businesses to strengthen local economies and give back to the local community. As the lead sponsor of this year’s Fast Growth 50, UBS is looking forward to following and supporting these businesses as they go from strength to strength.”

Wouter Satijn, Owner and Sales Director, Joloda Hydraroll, said: “It has been a challenging couple of years to navigate, but also an incredibly rewarding time for us at Joloda Hydraroll. We attribute our growth to a talented team who have consolidated our position as a global leader in loading and unloading solutions. We are quite unique in the industry in that we design and produce our products completely in-house, right here in the UK, instead of outsourcing certain elements of the process, which helped to minimise delays and disruptions to our supply chain. We have also launched several new products over the past few years that have contributed to hitting our growth targets, and opened new offices in Paris and Japan.”

Contribution to Growth and Job Creation

During 2020 to 2022, Joloda Hydraroll and its growing team of 250+ employees were instrumental in the Fast Growth 50’s collective turnover increase of £706 million. This highlights the company’s role in the North of England’s economic growth, particularly post-COVID-19.

Diverse Range of Businesses

The Fast Growth 50 features companies from various sectors, adding to the diversity of the North of England’s economy. Material handling equipment manufacturer, Joloda Hydraroll, is part of this varied business landscape. Looking forward, Joloda Hydraroll has several projects lined up for 2024, including new acquisitions to further strengthen its product portfolio for customers globally.

1st Robotics Trailer Loading Technology

Dexterity AI has announced a collaboration with FedEx Corp. to leverage AI-powered robotic technology to load boxes into trucks and trailers.

Truck loading has long been considered one of the most challenging tasks in parcel hubs. Manual loading is taxing and previous technology approaches have not been able to handle the complex decision making required to stack the wide range of shipments encountered in FedEx network, which vary in size, shape, weight, and packaging material.

Dexterity AI focuses on the complexity of truck loading by giving mobile robots a suite of intelligence ranging from the ability to see, touch, think, and move quickly to pack trailers with stable, dense walls of randomized boxes.

“Our culture of innovation is driven by a desire to help our team members and customers succeed,” said Rebecca Yeung, corporate vice president of Operations Science and Advanced Technologies for FedEx. “Based on feedback from our operations team, we have been looking for a solution that helps alleviate the challenges of truck loading. Collaborating with Dexterity AI to combine the latest in AI and robotics supports our operations team while meeting growing customer demand.”

Introducing Next-Generation AI for Intelligent Truck Loading Robots

Dexterity AI’s proprietary mobile robot design, DexR, navigates autonomously to the back of trailers and connects to a powered conveyor system that feeds the robot boxes directly from the sortation system. The DexR’s unique two arm design enables the robot to pick and pack boxes simultaneously, improving throughput.

Dexterity’s AI platform uses a broad set of intelligence, so it can be used to handle the complexities of truck loading required by operations.

Some unique characteristics of the platform include:
● Generative Wall Planning: With every new box presented to the DexR, Dexterity’s AI software takes 500 milliseconds or less to assess billions of wall build possibilities to pack trailers with tight, stable walls.
● A Sense of Touch: Dexterity AI-powered force control gives robots a unique sense of touch so they know how to gently nudge boxes together in creating tightly packed walls.
● Machine Learning-Based Pack Improvement: Machine learning helps ensure that with every box picked, the Dexterity AI truck loading software becomes even more efficient in handling a broader range of packing challenges.
● Integrated Motion Planning: By integrating its own trajectory and motion planning, the Dexterity AI platform helps the DexR’s two arms move quickly inside trailers without colliding with each other or the truck walls.

Testing of the truck load technology is ongoing by FedEx with a goal to refine the technology and deploy commercially in the future.

“FedEx shares our belief that innovation should solve the most difficult tasks in operations,” said Samir Menon, founder and CEO of Dexterity AI. “Our collaboration is driven by a vision of AI-powered robotics that is adaptable to our customer’s most pressing needs.”

The official unveiling of this innovative AI-powered robotics truck loading technology took place at the companies’ joint event “Unlock the Dock” in San Francisco on September 26, 2023.

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