UK firm secures £5m to deploy 1,000 robotic systems in the food sector
12 May 2026 
The UK robotics and automation specialist, OAL, has secured a £5m innovation loan from Innovate UK to deploy more than 1,000 robotic systems to tackle labour shortages in the food manufacturing industry by 2030. The five-year programme will support the commercial rollout of fenceless robotics designed to operate safely alongside people on production lines without traditional cages.
The project will support the creation of more than 100 new roles across engineering, software development, systems integration and technical sales at Peterborough-based OAL. The company will also launch a structured apprenticeship programme supporting the development of future automation engineers and technicians.
The UK food manufacturing sector employs more than 430,000 people, with many roles involving repetitive manual handling tasks for which manufacturers are increasingly struggling to recruit and retain staff. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 roles that manufacturers struggle to fill consistently.
Despite these pressures, food factories are much less automated than many other industries, in part because traditional industrial robots are often too large, complex or difficult to integrate into existing production environments.
OAL’s fenceless robots can be retrofitted to existing production lines without major changes to factory layouts. By automating repetitive tasks such as pick-and-place handling and palletising, manufacturers can boost efficiency, accuracy and safety, while allowing operators to focus on higher value work.
“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,” says OAL’s managing director, Jake Norman. “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.”
“In industries like food processing, robotics and automation can increase productivity by filling vacancies rather than replacing jobs,” adds Innovate UK’s innovation lead, Jonathan Walker. “The conditions are generally unpleasant for people to work in due to temperature, hygiene requirements and repetitive tasks but 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.”
Innovate UK’s innovation loans provide affordable, non-dilutive funding for innovative UK SMEs that are undertaking later-stage research and development.
OAL (originally Olympus Automation) was founded in 1993 by Harry Norman and remains a family business. In 2016, it entered the robotics market, taking on demanding applications in the food manufacturing sector, from robotic cooking to automated powder weighing. It has now automated more than 2,000 production lines in factories across the UK and Europe, including Domino’s Pizza, Solina and the Agrana Group.
More recently, OAL has expanded into end-of-line automation, including palletising robots, pick-and-place systems and fenceless robotic applications. This allows manufacturers to automate repetitive manual tasks while maintaining production performance.
OAL: LinkedIn
