Refresco Italia has partnered with E80 Group to transform its Sulmona facility with an automated intralogistics system, improving efficiency, sustainability, and operational flexibility whilst supporting future business growth.
AUTOMATED INTRALOGISTICS
As manufacturers continue to balance rising demand with increasingly complex production requirements, automated intralogistics is becoming a defining feature of modern industrial operations.
For Refresco Italia, the world’s largest independent provider of beverage solutions for global, national, and emerging brands, as well as retailers across Europe, North America, and Australia, the next stage of its evolution centred on rethinking how products move through its facility.
Working alongside automation specialist E80 Group, the company has transformed its Sulmona plant in the heart of Abruzzo into a highly automated logistics hub, integrating production with warehousing to improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and strengthen customer service.
LOGISTICS AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Refresco Italia produces beverages across multiple packaging formats, including cans, glass, and PET plastic, allowing it to meet a diverse range of customer requirements.
“We produce in cans, glass, and PET plastic. The ability to offer different solutions to our customers is fundamental for the company’s strategic development,” says Claudio Ciavattini, Managing Director of Refresco Italia.
Supporting that product diversity requires equally flexible logistics. Having already invested significantly in bottling technologies, the company identified intralogistics as the next opportunity to improve operational performance.
“We realized it would be the key lever for taking a further step forward,” explains Tullio Tiozzo, Manufacturing Director of Refresco Italia.
The objective was to reduce reliance on external warehouses, improve the speed and safety of internal material flows, and enhance environmental performance. To achieve this, Refresco Italia partnered with E80 Group to design and implement a fully integrated automated intralogistics system tailored to the site’s operational requirements.
AN AUTOMATED SOLUTION
At the centre of the project is an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) served by six stacker cranes and offering capacity for more than 25,000 pallet positions.
Supporting warehouse operations is a fleet of 13 laser-guided vehicles (LGVs), responsible for supplying production lines with auxiliary materials, transporting finished goods to the AS/RS warehouse, and managing automated block storage.
“LGV technology was identified as the most suitable because it allows us to avoid installing additional machinery inside the factory and to automate the existing warehouse within our plant,” says Gaetano Vicino, Supply Chain Director of Refresco Italia.
The site’s three- and four-level Block Storage system is also managed entirely by LGVs. Using environmental navigation technology, the vehicles operate without artificial references or pre-mapping, providing flexibility and precision throughout the facility. The shipping area has likewise been integrated into the automated material flow.
FROM PRODUCTION TO LOADING
The automation project extends beyond warehouse operations, creating a seamless connection between production and dispatch through E80 Group’s SM.I.LE80 software platform.
“Today, production no longer ends at the palletizer, but at the loading bay. Integrating a factory in this way results in a cultural transformation for everyone involved,” says Tiozzo.
The software platform provides continuous monitoring and full traceability across the logistics process, helping create smoother workflows whilst improving visibility and operational control.
“We are talking about a warehouse run by a powerful software system, and from a corporate digitalisation perspective, this is a crucial step for us,” adds Ciavattini.
By integrating production, storage, and shipping into a single automated ecosystem, Refresco Italia has established a logistics model that supports both current operations and future expansion.
A FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE GROWTH
The project moved from its initial phase to handling its first pallet with LGVs in less than 12 months, enabling Refresco Italia to rapidly realise operational and sustainability benefits.
“This immediately allowed us to stop movements to external warehouses and improve environmental sustainability, while offering our customers warehousing services,” says Vicino.
Alongside reducing external warehouse movements, the new system has improved productivity, strengthened safety, and created more consistent operating procedures across the plant.
For Refresco Italia, however, Sulmona represents the beginning rather than the end of its automation journey.
“The next challenge will be to integrate our other plants in the same direction and achieve fully automated truck loading,” Tiozzo concludes.
Through its partnership with E80 Group, Refresco Italia has demonstrated how integrated intralogistics can deliver measurable operational improvements whilst supporting long-term sustainability goals.
By combining automation, software, and a shared vision for innovation, the project provides a scalable model for future manufacturing and logistics operations.
This article was produced by the editorial team at Food & Beverage Outlook and published as part of the Outlook Publishing global network of B2B industry magazines.
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