SiTL 2022 Review
SiTL [link] is the largest intralogistics trade show in France and STIQ had not visited until now.
At first sight, the number of visitors seemed a bit low, judging from the exterior. However, once inside, there was plenty of activity. In fact, whilst the show was quite small (compared to Modex and LogiMat), it felt very busy thanks to the many very well designed stands.
The show covers quite a wide range of companies from forklift vendors, property investors, robotics companies, to 3PLs and younger startups.
Despite the mix of companies, there were very interesting conversations with many companies, especially in terms of e-Grocery. Readers might already know that France is one of the better developed countries for online grocery.
Quite busy and excellent atmosphere. Many stands offer mini croissants, coffees and macaroons...
Libiao sorting robots at every show we've been to.
Effidence is an AMR vendor that has supplied their navigation stack to a forklift vendor. In this case to Manitou. Apparently they have been relatively successful already. This particular forklift can lift up to 1.5m and was launched in early 2022.
Not sure what they exhibit, but liked the way they put together a few 20ft containers to form a stand.
Ferag showcased a Quicktron robot. Apparently they are long time resellers of Quicktron, pre-dating KION's investment.
Husky, a new AMR vendor for us. Some vendors keep to their domestic markets for extensive periods of time with non-English speaking websites, etc. and can go below our radar for some time... but we do get them in the end.
All in all, SiTL is probably not worth visiting unless you live in France or target Western European customers. Knowing French at this show will make things easier although 95%+ of people we spoke to were happy to try English.
Getting to SiTL is very easy if you fly into Charles de Gaulle Airport. The ticket queues move fast, so don't despair. Walking from the train station to the Parc des Expositions may be a bit harrowing as there may not be a lot of people if you turn up towards mid day. But when inside there is a lot of action.
For us it took less than a day to walk through the show. However, our focus was on system integrators and warehouse automation, so will not be representative for the whole show as there were property investors, TMS, WMS, etc. vendors as well that we may have disregarded.
We will definitely return to SiTL in the future.