I. Hognaland, J. Hatteland
Jakob Hatteland (72) and Ingvar Hognaland (68), pioneers of Cube Storage Automation, are being inducted into the International Logistics Hall of Fame. It's hard to argue with: the two Norwegians can claim to have practically reinvented warehousing with their AutoStore system.
The underlying principle of Cube Storage Automation is one of the most important inventions in modern logistics and has established itself worldwide as a standard and model for highly efficient automated small parts warehouses.
In the 1980s, Jakob Hatteland built the electronics parts wholesaler Jakob Hatteland Electronics AS, named after him, into a major player in Norway. His technical director, Ingvar Hognaland, conceived the idea for space-saving Cube Storage Automation in the 1990s—an automated storage system based on the cube principle, which later became famous under the product name AutoStore. In 1996, Hatteland and Hognaland founded AutoStore as a technology company in Nedre Vats. Hognaland's idea of utilizing all available space in a warehouse led to the central structural element of AutoStore: the Grid. This consists of an aluminum grid, robots, bins, workstations, and a controller. The robots travel along rails on the top of the Grid and retrieve bins from the shafts as needed.
After introducing the first AutoStore robot for internal use in 2002, Hatteland recognized the system's global potential and decided to commercialize AutoStore starting in 2004. The AutoStore principle enables unprecedented efficiency in warehouse logistics: it is scalable, space-saving, and energy-efficient, ensuring high throughput rates and excellent uptime. Its modular design integrates seamlessly into any infrastructure, and compared to conventional systems, it can reduce volume by 75 percent. Today, more than 1,250 AutoStore systems are in operation in approximately 900 companies across 50 countries worldwide. After Hatteland and Hognaland successfully sold AutoStore to an investor, it was valued at more than €1.5 billion before being sold to a second investor in 2019.
“The induction of these two Norwegians into the Logistics Hall of Fame is long overdue. Hognaland invented the automated cube storage system and developed it into a perfect system that now boasts more than 1,600 patents. Hatteland will go down in logistics history because, firstly, he courageously believed in the system's success for years and, , built a network of select international distributors that made AutoStore a global bestseller,” explains Anita Würmser, Managing Chair of the Logistics Hall of Fame Jury, justifying the decision of the expert jury, which comprises 70 prominent figures from business, science, politics, and media in 13 nations. The cube storage pioneers will be officially inducted into the Logistics Hall of Fame at a gala reception on November 29th at the Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin.
Leader of the Year: A.Frey, H.Seifert
The Logistics Leader of the Year Award will also be presented at the reception. This year, the trophy goes to Axel Frey and Harry Seifert. Harry Seifert is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Seifert Logistics Group. In over 40 years at the helm of the Swabian logistics provider, he has developed the company into one of the top 100 logistics service providers . Axel Frey, who joined the management board in 2019 and became CEO in 2022, heads the operational business. Under the motto "Full Speed Ahead Towards the Future," the two have implemented a strategic realignment of the family business in recent years employees, digitalization focusing on attracted particular attention with their "Employees First" philosophy. The Logistics Hall of Fame recognizes this achievement as exemplary for the logistics industry. "Harry Seifert and Axel Frey have set an impressive example for the future viability of the industry. This impetus provides guidance, especially for medium-sized logistics companies," the jury stated in its reasoning. Founded in 1947, Seifert Logistics Group, headquartered in Ulm, is one of Germany's leading logistics service providers with approximately 4,000 employees. The family-owned company implements procurement, production, and distribution solutions across Europe industries building materials, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods
Between 2021 and 2023, the number of employees increased by 1,500 to a total of 4,000. The company already achieved its second-highest revenue in its history in 2020, and in 2023 revenue is expected to increase by a further 25 percent to a record high of 330 million euros.
The award is presented by the Logistics Hall of Fame and sponsored by the forklift manufacturer Still. Crucially, for induction into the Logistics Hall of Fame, an achievement must not only benefit a single company, but must have significantly advanced logistics beyond the boundaries of that organization or become an industry standard. To date, 43 logistics professionals have been inducted into the international hall of fame.
Furthermore, the Logistics Hall of Fame awards the Lynn C. Fritz Medal for Excellence in Humanitarian Logistics to innovative logistics projects by humanitarian organizations. This year, as previously reported, the medal will be awarded to the US aid organization Medical Corps. The LHoF initiative is supported by politicians, associations, media outlets, businesses, and academia. Federal Minister of Transport Volker Wissing serves as its patron.
