Estonian parcel locker firm Cleveron has reported on a successful yet challenging 2022, with the business “back to growing profitably” as it works towards achieving its target of “tenfold growth” and introducing new products and customers.
According to Arti Kütt, Chief Executive Officer of Cleveron, the company grew by more than 50% in 2022 and the production volumes of parcel lockers saw an increase of 125%. Furthermore, more than 100 parcel robots were produced.
During 2022, Cleveron also expanded its activities to 12 countries, meaning that its solutions can now be found in 51 countries, with more than 7,000 terminals representing Cleveron worldwide.
“In my opinion, over the past year, Cleveron has become a significantly more mature, systematic, and higher quality company. By taking more meaningful steps, we are moving towards our goals,” said Kütt.
“Once again, we have had to make many changes, all of which will bring us closer to our target of tenfold growth. I am extremely pleased to see that after a few years, Cleveron is back to growing profitably and we have conquered the difficult years. Together we will be able to tackle even the most complex external factors,” he added.
Business highlights
At the beginning of 2022, Cleveron finalized the division of the company and set up a new 50-member autonomous vehicle development department, which is separate from the main Cleveron business.
“This means that we are now fully focused on the development, sales, manufacturing, and maintenance of parcel terminals and robots,” explained Kütt. “Together with our customers, we will rack our brains and develop new products based on their problems and dreams. Our mission is to make people’s lives easier and give them more time through automation and our products.”
During the past 12 months, Cleveron also developed a special parcel terminal designed for retailers for the receipt and efficient handling of large volumes of returns, and introduced the new outdoor terminal the Cleveron 352, which was developed with the logistics sector in mind.
“In addition, we upgraded the parcel terminal designed for small enterprises – Cleveron 351 Plus – which by now is already being used by several enterprises. This, however, is not all: we also created special modules for dry cleaning and completed the world’s largest parcel terminals for online furniture stores as well as hardware stores,” Kütt explained.
Robotics developments
“This year, we have also been able to place more emphasis on the development of our robotic products,” Kütt continued. “These developments make Cleveron products even faster and further increase customer satisfaction and efficiency.”
One of the most exciting upgrades, Kütt noted, was the automatic age-identification feature added to Cleveron’s grocery robot, which allows the possibility to identify whether the person receiving age-restricted orders is older than the set age limit.
“I am also delighted that the Telia self-service store, which we opened in Rapla, Estonia, just before last Christmas, is actively being used and has even received the approval of senior citizens. This year is proof that our software is highly valued,” Kütt explained.
The year ahead
Kütt also revealed that the coming year will see Cleveron introduce “a couple of long-awaited and much-needed products” to its portfolio. No more details were given about these new products, but Kütt did not that team Cleveron “should know exactly which products” he was talking about.
He also predicted that the upcoming year will be characterised by increasing labour costs and soaring electricity prices. And that the consumption of end-users will decrease, which in turn will affect the revenues of Cleveron’s customers. “Today we can already see that our customers are more cautious with their cash-flow management,” he added.
“From a long-term perspective, automation in retail is one of the ways of optimising costs,” he continued. “I believe that parcel terminals will be used more and more in retail as it is the only way that retailers can sustainably keep their costs under control. Thanks to an incredible omnichannel customer experience, parcel terminals will allow retailers to earn additional revenue. Fortunately, our products and services already serve these objectives, which makes me look to the new year with an optimistic mindset when it comes to Cleveron.”
