Smart Robotics and Opitz Packaging Systems Enter Strategic Partnership
Best/Northeim, October 5, 2026 – The newly formed partnership combines Smart Robotics’ expertise in robotics and Embodied AI with more than 30 years of experience at Opitz.
The aim of the new partnership is to bring packaging automation and advanced robotics closer together and to jointly develop integrated automation solutions for selected applications and customers.
The initial focus will be on robot-assisted palletizing and end-of-line applications. In the longer term, the partnership is also set to expand into item-picking applications.
For both companies, the partnership represents a valuable extension of their respective offerings. Opitz can integrate the Dutch technology company’s embodied AI solutions into its packaging machines and systems to realize new concepts, while serving as the lead integrator in incorporating the technology into comprehensive packaging solutions. Smart Robotics, in turn, benefits from Opitz’s profound process expertise and a more direct route into the packaging industry.
As a subsidiary of global packaging specialist Storopack, Opitz has extensive expertise across the entire packaging process. In collaboration with Smart Robotics, Opitz can provide customers with comprehensive solutions from a single source.
From the outset, the partnership has deliberately been designed to serve a broad range of industries. Potential applications span e-commerce, manufacturing and logistics environments, as well as the food, fashion and pharmaceutical sectors.
Complementary Expertise
As a custom machine builder specializing in innovative automation and packaging technology, Opitz Packaging Systems has been developing and manufacturing tailored technical solutions for more than 30 years, helping make packaging and shipping processes faster, more efficient and more cost-effective.
Based in Northeim, Germany, the company has extensive experience in automating packaging processes and integrating custom-built equipment into existing systems and complex IT environments.
“Our customers are increasingly looking at how they can efficiently automate not only individual tasks, but entire processes. This is precisely where we want to explore new approaches in selected projects. AI and robotics will inevitably play a central role here. That is why we believe Smart Robotics is the ideal partner for joint projects that will shape the future,” says Tim Opitz, Managing Director of Opitz Packaging Systems.
Smart Robotics complements Opitz’s expertise and extensive experience with high-performance robotics applications. The Dutch technology company develops AI-driven robotic systems for automated picking and palletizing processes.
“As a specialist in custom machine engineering, Opitz has long been one of the most established and respected companies in the packaging industry across the DACH region. A strategic partnership with a company of this caliber therefore offers tremendous potential for us and our future customers,” says Felix Schmidt, Co-CEO of Smart Robotics.
Win-Win-Win: Benefits for Everyone Involved :
- Opitz: The partnership gives Opitz access to technology that can complement and strategically expand its existing portfolio in suitable customer projects.
- Smart Robotics: Smart Robotics gains value from Opitz’s decades of experience and the opportunity to deepen its activities in the packaging sector. Opitz Packaging Systems is also a firmly established company and one of the industry leaders in the DACH region.
- Customers: Customers benefit directly from additional tailored, state-of-the-art automation solutions in which packaging technology and robotics are optimally coordinated. The integrated approach also significantly reduces the number of interfaces required and the anticipated integration effort.
Outlook
As a next step, the two companies will jointly identify specific applications and demo use cases and develop corresponding solution concepts. The goal is to make the combination of their technologies tangible and allow customers to experience it first-hand.
The companies also plan to deepen their commercial collaboration. Together, they will identify suitable customer projects and assess where packaging technology and robotics can be effectively combined into integrated automation solutions in the future.
Further details will be presented jointly in early November 2026 at the trade fair Logistica Next in Utrecht, at stand 07.C117 and 07.E058.
Media Contacts
merras.ext@smart-robotics.nl
info@opitz-packaging-systems.de
