Five-year programme will support commercial rollout of fenceless robots that work alongside people on packhouse and food manufacturing production lines
Robotics and automation specialist OAL has secured a £5 million Innovation Loan from Innovate UK to deploy over 1,000 robotic systems in the food manufacturing industry by 2030 to help address labour shortages.
The five-year programme will support the commercial rollout of fenceless robotics: compact robotic systems designed to operate safely alongside people on production lines without traditional caging.
The UK food manufacturing sector currently employs more than 430,000 people, with many roles involving repetitive manual handling tasks for which manufacturers increasingly struggle to recruit and retain staff. According to OAL, industry estimates suggest there are more than 100,000 roles that manufacturers struggle to fill consistently.
Despite these pressures, food factories remain significantly less automated than many other industries, in part because traditional industrial robots are often too large, complex or difficult to integrate into existing space-constrained production environments.
OAL’s fenceless robotics technology enables manufacturers to retrofit these systems directly onto existing production lines without major changes to factory layouts. By automating repetitive tasks such as pick-and-place handling and palletising, manufacturers will boost efficiency, accuracy and safety, while allowing operators to focus on higher value work.
Jake Norman, OAL’s managing director, said: “Labour remains one of the biggest structural challenges in food manufacturing, yet traditional automation is often too large or inflexible to adapt to changing demands – be they consumer or retailer-led.
“Fenceless robotics addresses this head on. We can rapidly deploy robots into space-constrained environments to automate pick and place and palletising tasks. This transformational technology gives manufacturers a real competitive advantage and reduces their exposure to labour shortages. We’re thrilled to secure the support of Innovate UK to accelerate this vital project.”
Jonathan Walker, Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, added: “In industries like food processing, robotics and automation can increase productivity by filling vacancies rather than replacing jobs. The conditions are generally unpleasant for people to work in due to temperature, hygiene requirements and repetitive tasks, but they are well suited to a properly designed robot. It is great to see UK companies innovating in this space and I’m pleased that Innovate UK are able to support.”
The project will support the creation of more than 100 new roles across engineering, software development, systems integration and technical sales at OAL. The company will also launch a structured apprenticeship programme based at its Peterborough headquarters, supporting the development of future automation engineers and technicians.
OAL has been developing robotics for food manufacturing since 2016, with systems already deployed in factories across the UK and Europe, including Domino’s Pizza, Solina and Agrana Group.
