Inther Group is building no-hands automation into deep-freeze logistics

Deep-Freeze Without Manual Handoffs

Inther Group published its no-hands deep-freeze concept on June 11, 2025, around process automation for frozen food logistics. The operating problem is unusually physical: staff can work in deep-freeze conditions only briefly, forklifts need maneuvering space, doors create cooling losses, and pallet freezing can deform product loads. Stefan Weisshap, CEO of Inther Group Germany, ties the concept to personnel limits, space use, energy cost, and product quality inside frozen warehouses.

Inther moves the freezing step from pallet level to individual boxes. Finished packaging products travel by conveyor at about 3 degrees Celsius to a tunnel freezer, then pass through air curtains or air locks into buffer storage before collection for palletizing. Inther says this process can save up to 22 percent energy and add up to 8 percent more storage and transport capacity. The figures remain company-published concept numbers, while the physical logic is clear: freeze smaller units sooner, then store and palletize after product shape is stable.

Installed Deep-Freeze Pattern

The same record cites an Inther system for Finnish meat producer Snellman with 10,000 storage locations and 1,500 meters of conveyors. The Snellman system also includes 12 order pickers, container handling equipment, and a retrieval sorter. It also names Westfort Meat Products in IJsselstein, where Inther installed integrated freezer storage across about 38,000 square meters with a 72-level ASRS shuttle system operating at minus 18 degrees Celsius. Those examples keep the no-hands concept beside installed cold-chain systems with named customers and physical scale.

Inther company material records 250 employees and offices in six geographies: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United States, China and Moldova. It also records activity in 20 countries and an R&D and Technology Assembly Center next to the Venray head office. That delivery footprint gives the no-hands concept a systems-integration base across warehouse software, freezer transfer, ASRS shuttles, and downstream palletizing. LogiNext separately reported on February 3, 2025 that VDL Enabling Technologies Group had engaged Inther for a new Almelo warehouse with 44,000 storage locations. The VDL system includes six ergonomic order-picking stations, eight incoming-goods workstations and a two-aisle shuttle system with robotic palletizing. Public material does not publish deep-freeze uptime, post-commissioning energy use, labor hours removed or payback period by customer. The clearest public metric is frozen boxes processed per energy unit by site under Inther Group.

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