Boehli boosts pretzel production with two AS/RSs

Boehli: Savory pretzels from Alsace

Boehli, based in Alsace (northeastern France), specializes in snack production, particularly baked goods like pretzels and breadsticks. Founded in Gundershoffen (France), the company is known for its quality, use of local ingredients, and traditional processes combined with modern technology. Its goal is to ensure the freshness and flavor of its products. Boehli has a team of 80 employees and produces 34 tons of snacks daily, which are distributed to over 25 countries.

Headquartered in Gundershoffen, in northern Alsace, Boehli has established itself as a leading snack brand in France and Europe, known for its pretzels and breadsticks. Its factory, opened in 2000, produces over 34 tons of snack crackers daily. This was achieved by integrating seven production lines with two automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs), all supervised by Mecalux’s Easy WMS warehouse management system. 

“We decided to automate storage because our old warehousing area was running low on capacity, and we no longer had enough space to process our orders,” says Raphael Wurtz, Production Plant Manager at Boehli.

Thirty-nine percent of Boehli’s sales go to exports, primarily to countries such as Germany, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, and Australia. Wurtz highlights the importance of storage technology in serving these markets: “Automation allows us to optimize flows and increase our order shipment capacity. Associates no longer have to travel around the warehouse for picking — the automated systems bring the pallets to them. Additionally, this technology has helped us save storage space and avoid manual pallet handling during storage and shipping.”

Two integrated AS/RSs

Boehli’s facility is equipped with two robotic storage solutions from Mecalux that handle the pretzel manufacturer’s high production pace. The Automated Pallet Shuttle with a stacker crane houses finished products, while another 262.5-foot-long AS/RS accommodates raw materials and packaging. The combination of these two automated systems has maximized performance and leveraged available space, providing a total storage capacity of 4,054 pallets.

“Thanks to automation, we can manage and ship an average of 360 pallets daily, including raw materials, finished goods, and the packaging required for our operations,” says Wurtz.

Boehli manages and ships an average of 360 pallets daily, including raw materials and finished products

Boehli’s production area is located in a building behind the warehouse. To connect the two facilities, Mecalux set up infeed and outfeed stations at the rear, linking logistics operations with manufacturing through automated guided vehicles (AGVs). These machines deliver raw materials and packaging to the manufacturing area and transport production batches from the factory to the warehouse, ensuring a smooth, efficient workflow.

At the front of the warehouse, an automatic transfer car guided by Easy WMS moves finished goods to two possible destinations: the pick station or the preload area.

The pick station — designed to fill up to three orders at once — operates according to the goods-to-person method. This minimizes unnecessary travel and improves warehouse picker ergonomics.

In the preload area, the transfer car organizes and accurately sorts pallets, placing them in one of nine flow channels by customer, order, or assigned route. This sequenced operation speeds up and streamlines the truck loading process, reducing wait times and releasing each shipment in the optimal order for distribution.

Wurtz emphasizes the importance of the automated systems in this final phase of Boehli’s logistics processes: “The stacker cranes, automated conveyors, and transfer car facilitate the continuous, error-free movement of pallets to their destinations: the pick station and flow channels in the shipping area.”

Logistics automation for Industry 4.0

“We consulted several suppliers specializing in storage systems, and in the end, we chose Mecalux because they proposed the solution that best fit our logistics needs. We’re very satisfied with our decision,” says Wurtz.

The two AS/RSs that Boehli implemented are vital for achieving a daily production of 34 tons of snacks. They enable the performance level needed to keep up with the production pace and optimize operational efficiency, ensuring the supply chain runs smoothly. With these automated solutions, Boehli can meet market demand while maintaining high product quality standards.

Automation allows us to optimize flows and increase our order shipment capacity.