This investment marks a significant step in Comau’s journey to broaden its expertise and market presence in the fast-growing sector of logistics and warehouse automation.

The transaction is perfectly aligned with Comau’s strategy to accelerate diversification into high-growth markets, leveraging the company’s solid foundation in industrial robotics, digitally driven automation, and human–machine collaboration technology. With the acquisition of Automha, Comau significantly enhances its offering of scalable, high-performance solutions, while reaffirming and strengthening its Italian roots and operations.

The deal will also ensure continuity for Automha’s current structure and customers, while enabling the expansion of its presence and services globally through the Comau brand.

Automha will continue to operate with the same organization and strategic vision, keeping people, quality, and innovation at its core. Franco Togni will remain CEO, while Gianni Togni and Roberta Togni, in addition to continuing in their current roles, will join Comau’s Executive Committee to contribute to the growth of both companies.

Moreover, since Comau and Automha offer fully complementary expertise, the collaboration will mutually enrich their portfolio of projects and customers.

«The acquisition of Automha is an important step in our journey to create an even stronger Italian technology hub and to assert our global leadership in the advanced automation sector. This deal also allows us to accelerate our growth in a high-potential market such as logistics.» said Pietro Gorlier, CEO of Comau. «With Automha, we have found a partner with complementary skills and expertise that will allow us to deliver integrated and scalable solutions to meet new market challenges and the needs of customers worldwide».

«Joining forces with Comau marks an evolution for Automha and opens up new, exciting opportunities for growth and innovation» added Franco Togni, founder of Automha. «By combining our deep knowledge of intralogistics automation with Comau’s global presence, advanced robotics, and digital technologies, we will have a stronger platform to grow, innovate, and deliver even more value to our customers around the world».

The Togni family was assisted by Dr. Paolo Ribolla of the firm RFA Ribolla, Fusi e Associati for the fiscal and financial aspects of the transaction, and by lawyers Matteo Montanaro, Maria Cristina Pezzullo, Giulia Rimoldi, Matteo Beretta, and Gerolamo da Passano of CGSH Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as legal advisors.

Roberta Togni has been elected Vice President of the ISPG (Intralogistics Systems Product Group) of FEM – European Materials Handling Federation. This significant role recognizes her dedication and expertise in the intralogistics sector. She will enthusiastically contribute to the consolidation and development of a sector that is crucial for the European economy, pursuing a mission based on innovation, sustainability, and collaboration.

In addition, she has been appointed Vice President of ANIMA Confindustria, the Italian Federation of National Associations of the Mechanical Engineering and Related Industries, with responsibility for Internal Organization and Coordination. This strategic role highlights her ability to lead and strengthen synergies among various industrial entities.

«Receiving these appointments is a great honor and a responsibility that I embrace with enthusiasm. The Vice Presidency of FEM ISPG allows me to contribute to the growth of a vital sector for the European economy, while the role in ANIMA Confindustria gives me the opportunity to strengthen synergies and lead initiatives that enhance the value of the Italian industry. I am ready to work with determination and a team spirit to achieve ambitious goals in both organizations» she stated.

Congratulations to Roberta for these significant achievements, which reaffirm her decisive contribution to the European and Italian industrial sectors!

FEM – European Materials Handling Federation celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March as a special opportunity to shine the spotlight on women working in the materials handling industry, highlighting unique experiences and expertise, and what led them on this career path.

They shared the story of Roberta Togni, General Counsel & CSR Officer of Automha, and FEM ISPG Board Member, highlighting her key role and motivation in shaping our industry!

What does your role involve and what are your responsibilities?

As the General Counsel & CSR Officer of Automha, I coordinate and supervise the Legal, HR and Compliance department, and I personally take care of the corporate management, including our parent companies. In addition, I manage and coordinate all activities related to sustainability. Lastly, I represent Automha in different associations that take care of the technical-normative part for the intralogistics sector: I am member of the General Board of Anima with responsibility for innovation, AISEM Vice-President with responsibility to Associative Relation and Group Leader of the Italian Intralogistic System Association and FEM ISPG (Instralogistic Systems Product Group) Board Member.

What initially interested you, and led you to this industry?

The interest and passion for this sector was certainly passed down to me by my father, Franco Togni, the founder of the company and President of Automha. I then became passionate about technology. At first glance, it may seem that my law studies and logistics are not compatible, but, in reality, law, like mathematics and logistics, require mastering a method to analyse and interpret data. Without a method even the best of intuitions would be not applicable.

Do you have any advice for other women who may not have considered this sector as a possible opportunity for them?

The world of intralogistics is truly vast and with many possibilities. It is a very dynamic world, constantly evolving, offering the opportunity to interface with new technologies and business models. We must not think of intralogistics only as a set of mechanical and electrical components, but all processes at 360°. We can find several areas, such as engineering and innovation, software, production, sales, marketing, purchasing, HR, administration, project management, logistics, and much more, where women can express their potential. The world of intralogistics also offers continuous industry connections, allowing one to increase their skills and knowledge starting from other sectors know-how, other countries experiences, and other needs. From a legal point of view, it is very useful to be able to communicate with different industrial sectors, taking advantage of useful lessons. The female ability to work in teams and to systematically plan their work is a great plus in using and synthesizing experiences taken from other areas.

Do you have any insights into what could be done to encourage more women into this sector?

I believe a cultural change is happening and I noticed a rapprochement of the female gender also to the more technical subjects. In Automha, our daily mission is to nurture the talents of each individual and support a healthy work-life balance. In this case, Automha was the first company to reduce the working hours of all employees who are mothers of children aged 1 to 10 years old by 25% without a reduction in pay, an initiative highly esteemed within the company as well as within the local community. It is important for women to follow their passions without being influenced by cultural biases that still see them tied to certain roles. In our company, the collaboration between male and female technical figures has often led to surprising results, as issues have been approached from different perspectives, with different, but complementary creative methods and styles.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In five years, I see myself further developed and engaged in my professional field. My primary goal is to make a significant contribution to the company’s success by spearheading innovative projects and actively collaborating with the team and external companies operating in the wide Corporate Social Responsibility to achieve common objectives. I aspire to grow professionally because, as I always say, we never stop learning, potentially taking on a leadership role or providing more guidance within the organization. Additionally, I hope to continue tackling stimulating challenges while maintaining a healthy balance between work and my personal life.

The recognition, ideated by Kon Group and promoted by ELITE and Azimut Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Umbria, was assigned based on the ESG Rating established by ALTIS – Alta Scuola Impresa e Società dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and by Repris. Demonstrating the transparency and objectivity of the evaluation, the points were attributed via mathematical calculation, without the involvement of a jury or qualitative factors.

Automha, already in the Top 100 sustainable companies for several years, was newly inserted in the category Top 100 Excellence, which recognizes the most sustainable Italian companies, and in the category Top 100 Performances, reserved for enterprises that obtained a significant improvement in their ESG rating compared to the previous editions.

The achievement reflects Automha’s constant commitment to making sustainable choices through the innovation of processes, systems and resources towards generating positive social and environmental impact.

In this period of accelerated change, Automha stands out as a reference point for the automation and intralogistics solutions sectors, thanks to its capacity to successfully integrate Industry 4.0 advanced technologies to optimize the client and supplier supply chain.

The company from Bergamo has made automated warehouses its guiding philosophy, working tirelessly to eliminate obstacles and improve intralogistics efficiency. The challenge to withdraw load units without the physical force of an operator fascinated the founder, Franco Togni, and pushed him in 1979 to develop automated solutions for warehouses.

Thanks to a constant commitment to innovation, Automha adopts cutting-edge solutions to improve the efficiency of its clients’ distribution and production centers. The integration of digital technologies in warehouses enables a more timely and precise control of operations, optimizing workflows and reducing times of inactivity.

One of the fundamental aspects of Industry 4.0 is the use of intelligent sensors and advanced monitoring systems. Thanks to this technology, each movement within the warehouse is tracked and analyzed in real time. This level of detailed tracking allows a more efficient management of goods, reducing errors to a minimum and improving workplace safety. President Togni’s company offers a personalized dashboard, a service that works side-by-side with the monitoring and tracking to intuitively visualize and analyze performance data.

Nevertheless, Automha does not limit the implementation of advanced technologies only in its clients’ warehouses. The company has made sustainability an essential part of its vision. The adoption of green technologies and the optimization of handling and storage operations of goods contributes to the reduction of environmental impact and the creation of sustainable warehouses.

Industry 4.0 is not just an abstract theory, but a concrete opportunity for companies that embrace innovation and digital transformation.

Once again Automha distinguishes itself for excellence in sustainability thanks to the achievement over the past year of 622,7/1000 in the ESG evaluation (environment, social, governance). The result represents a significant improvement because not only is it better than the 461,49/1000 obtained in 2021, but also than the average of Italian companies, which is about 480 points.

The ESG was carried out using the A4ESG method, promoted by Credit Suisse and developed by ALTIS (Alta Scuola Impresa e Società) of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, based on learning and refinement mechanisms that consider the information collected from the companies in previous evaluations. This ensures a suitable benchmark and allows continuous improvement of the evaluation model. The A4ESG model, with its algorithm, measures the capacity of the company to effectively manage the ESG themes through a series of objective parameters like the use of natural resources, contribution to the development of local communities, ethics, integrity and more.

The results achieved by Automha are excellent in all three areas of the ESG evaluation:

• Environment: 178,6 points out of 350
• Social: 290,2 points out of 350
• Governance: 154,0 points out of 300

The Bergamo company achieved the prestigious awards Top Social, for the highest social ESG rating; Top 100, for its commitment to respecting the environment; Top 50, for improving its performance over the past year and the Sustainability Award, promoted by Kon Group and Credit Suisse, with the media partnership of Forbes. This award recognizes Italian companies that are strongly active across the national territory and in sustainability, that reached important results regarding environment, social e governance.

It is a milestone that confirms Automha’s commitment toward green, that integrates ethical values, attention to the environment and to stakeholders in business processes. The company seeks to transform challenges into opportunities for strategic development, not just for itself but also for the territory in which it operates. The attention toward its collaborators, clients, suppliers and regional administrators is intrinsic to the business culture and contributed to a virtuous cycle that has increased the company’s productivity in recent years.

Another fundamental theme is valuing its employees, through growth plans and technical training, with a specific focus on female collaborators and enhancing young entrepreneurship. The internal policy supporting parents reflects the company’s commitment to an inclusive management of work, offering advantages like reduced working hours for mothers with preschool-aged children.

The attention to company welfare is translated into initiatives of value and wellness, not only for employees but also their families and service providers. The exchange between these two worlds contributes to the capacity of interaction and relations, improving satisfaction, motivation and performance of workers.

Automha, Bergamo company specialized in the planning, production and installation of cutting-edge automated warehouses, developed Virtual Commissioning as the Industry 4.0 solution for the creation of automated warehouses that adapt to every need of the client.

Virtual Commissioning is a system that replicates the physical behavior of systems or machines, allowing the user to virtually test all process and control systems. With a simulation software, it is possible to optimize and innovate the workflow specific to the client, reducing risks and associated costs of the working system to a minimum.

The first step of Virtual Commissioning consists of the creation of aa twin plant, called the Digital Twin, that anticipates the development of the automation within the digital environment. The vast business know-how allows the presentation of an initial version of the warehouse, using the simulation with different layouts and various types of machines, that respond specifically to each need of the client and evaluate the feasibility of the project.

Next, the phase of true Virtual Commissioning begins. During this process, all the elements planned and their relative automations are tested by PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), Motion Control and HMI (Human Machine Interface). This method allows testing the automation software and correcting potential programming errors.

But the support does not finish in the creation phase: in the after-sales phase, Automha offers a revamping service, updating systems, so that, in this way, the warehouse can continue running and avoid functional and economic losses.

Thanks to Virtual Commissioning, it is possible to test the changes right from the Azzano San Paolo headquarters, no matter where the warehouse to be created is located, guaranteeing an efficient and seamless updating process in the productive activity.

Beyond the reduction in development time of the software and work management, Virtual Commissioning allows carrying out numerous tests to verify the effectiveness of the planned security systems. Furthermore, it allows a significant reduction in delivery times of the system, with an estimated reduction of 60& of the production times with respect to the traditional approach of on-site commissioning. The same model can be replicated and adapted for different establishments of a company.

One example is what was created for Aviko, world leader in the production of potatoes with headquarters in Steenderen, in the Netherlands and in Poperinge in Belgium. Following the growth wave of the Food&Beverage sector after the post-pandemic period, the company decided to expand its activity, having Automha build two new automated warehouses. The implementation of  Virtual Commissioning allowed Automha to reduce by 100% the margins of error in the size of the system and 40% the time of installation and test of software on site, generating notable savings of time and resources for the client.

Aviko’s satisfaction is reflected clearly in the volume of goods shipped and managed by the warehouse, that reached a growth that would be impossible using the previous model.

The positive experience in Europa brought Automha to replicate the concept in Asia and North America, where it has two operational centers in China and Canada, to increase its international presence. Automha is always searching for innovative solutions for the automated storage and withdrawal of goods and Virtual Commissioning represents a significant turning point, allowing faster production times to the advantage of the client.

ITEMA (Shanghai) Weaving Machinery, founded in 2002, is global producer of textile machines, specialized in spinning, weaving, textile accessories and electronic parts. The company produces different types of textile and loom machines used mainly in the Chinese textile industry. Furthermore, ITEMA China has a help center with and independent start-up that guarantees maintenance services.

The company turned to Automha to resolve the problem with its production space: with limited space, caused by the presence of a large number of goods of which the management is difficult, it was complicated for the employees to find and withdraw the various materials.

For this solution, Automha decided to use the Heavy Tower, an automated vertical storage system of long items, metal sheets and carpets, guaranteeing an elevated load capacity. Six Heavy Towers were installed for the storage and handling of load units, from and toward the working bays.

What are the advantages? ITEMA, thanks to the system proposed and planned by Automha, that responds to the principal “goods to the operator”, it was able to resolve diverse problems tied to the reduced size of the warehouse: now the spaces are optimized, guaranteeing an elevated capacity over minimal surface area. The operators have all the information available about the state of the goods at every moment, registered by the control system, and assisted by the handling of material and the management of the warehouse.

For this reason, and given the capacity of innovation, the Liguria company decided to trust Automha with the automation of its Milk Center, with the goal of developing new technologies for the processing of raw materials through systems automation programming and information management of the production processes.

Frascheri asked to have a warehouse with temperature-controlled cells (+4°C), to increase storage capacity and to make the management of deadlines and production batches of fresh products more efficient. Therefore, a semi-automatic multi-depth intensive storage system was studied and created, managed by the shuttle Autosat, for the autonomous handling of goods in the warehouse aisles. The maximum storage capacity is 740 load units handled by two Autosat Wi-Fi managed by AWMS, the Warehouse Management System by Automha. With these applications, the Frascheri Milk Center passed from a floor storage system to a high-density, automatic storage system. Although there was not a lot of height available, Automha created a warehouse of two levels, with drive-in shelving and FIFO and LIFO storage logic. Handling times halved, higher security and increased traceability of the production chain are the added advantages of this Automha solution.

Once again, Automha confirms its leadership in the design, production and installation of complex automated systems linked to the world of automation and intralogistics in the national and international market.

In the months of November and December 2022 alone, orders closed for €40,000,000, of which €17,600,000 comes from an important player in the Food sector at an international level. The Azzano San Paolo company exemplifies the positive trend of which it is continuously the protagonist, proving the path of innovation and modernity undertaken by the company.

The sectors that have affected this record order in just 2 months correspond to the areas in which the company has consolidated its presence over the years: Food&Beverage, Automotive, Cold Store. The automatic systems closed in the last two months 2022 will be installed in Poland, Romania, Switzerland, the United States, South Korea, India and Indonesia. All this has been possible also thanks to the network of branches that, since the foundation of the company, has been built in strategic global markets: China, Spain, America and the up-and-coming market in India. Every year, the Directors of the foreign branches meet at the Headquarters of Azzano San Paolo for Automha Globe, a moment of sharing and networking to discuss the news and the most important issues related to Automha innovation, with the aim of planning the new goals to be achieved in the future together. «It is an initiative of extraordinary importance both at the strategic level and at the level of information and business growth» explains Gianni Togni, Vice President of Automha. This year it was held from December 14th to 16th, a testimony to the strong presence of Automha in the world and its interest in various markets, which does not stop at the national territory.