Bastian Solutions is building GEODIS fulfillment around AutoStore and Exacta

GEODIS supplied the strongest customer-side proof for Bastian Solutions: its 2021 announcement said a $48 million material-handling deal would create the highest-throughput documented AutoStore system globally for a leading apparel retailer. The site was built for omnichannel fulfillment across ecommerce and more than 1,000 stores. Bastian later identified the retailer as Maurices and published the detailed operating case in February 2025.

The gap between project award and operating case is the useful timeline. GEODIS announced the Bastian-AutoStore partnership in October 2021; Bastian published the case after the system had become a 404,000-square-foot omnichannel distribution center handling three fulfillment channels from one facility. Maurices' FY24 responsibility report separately identifies the Groveport distribution center, GEODIS collaboration, and AutoStore technology, while GEODIS and Bastian carry the operating detail.

Maurices had reworked distribution around one center for store replenishment, direct-to-consumer shipping, and buy-online-pick-up-in-store orders. Apparel SKU churn, seasonal peaks, and rising order expectations created a channel-mix problem: a manual-heavy model would slow store service and ecommerce response as volumes shifted. GEODIS needed throughput and flexibility inside the same building without rebuilding infrastructure for each seasonal shift.

The Bastian case centers on a 60,000-square-foot AutoStore grid inside the 404,000-square-foot facility. Bastian integrated 34 relay ports, five SmartPick robotic piece-picking stations, 13,540 linear feet of Hytrol conveyor, packing equipment, and sortation around the grid. Exacta coordinates task flow across storage, robotic picking, packing, and channel transitions. The system can process up to 450,000 units per day and has 50 percent growth capacity without major construction.

Bastian Solutions started in 1952 and grew from a Midwest material-handling company into a global automation integrator with more than 20 U.S. offices and international offices in four countries. Toyota Industries acquired Bastian in 2017 to enter North American materials-handling solutions at greater scale as ecommerce, labor cost, and productivity pressure expanded beyond forklift demand. Toyota later grouped Bastian with Vanderlande and viastore inside Toyota Automated Logistics.

AutoStore integration is crowded: Swisslog, Kardex, Dematic, and regional specialists all sell grid-centered fulfillment projects. Bastian's operating surface is the Toyota Automated Logistics portfolio, where AutoStore can sit beside Toyota forklift automation, Vanderlande systems, and viastore software when the customer problem requires broader material-handling design. The GEODIS-Maurices site fits Toyota's 2017 advanced-logistics rationale and proves Bastian's scope through AutoStore, SmartPick, Exacta, and Hytrol under one $48 million deployment.

Bastian's total AutoStore project count and support pricing are not public, so this case is the visible scale proof for Bastian as an omnichannel integrator inside Toyota's warehouse automation portfolio. The capacity story is clear: GEODIS can run store, ecommerce, and BOPIS flow through one fulfillment system with room for 50 percent growth before major construction enters the plan.

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