POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER. Join us for our Section meeting on Tuesday, May 21st 28th at 5:30PM at WinCraft in Winona for a tour and presentation of operations that include the latest facility expansion using robotics in distribution. Closed toe shoes should be worn. Use the visitor entrance in back of building. WinCraft is located at 1301 Innovation Drive, Winona, MN 55987.
Dinner and networking to follow at Black Horse Bar & Grill (34648 Old Homer Rd, Winona, MN 55987) Cost for event with dinner is $20 for members and guests, $15 for students.
There is no cost for the tour only. Register online by scanning the attached QR code (email invite) or on the Bill Highway website. Please register even if you are only attending the tour.
WinCraft, established in 1961, is a leading manufacturer of licensed and promotional products for retailers, professional sports teams, concessionaires, colleges, businesses, distributors, and schools, with a vast array of products for every retail selling season, hot market, and major event.
The sports accessories maker WinCraft celebrated the grand opening of a massive new distribution center adjoining its East End factory in Winona in late December 2023. The new facility is 147,000 square feet and 30 feet tall, with shelf after shelf of koozies, flags, and various branded sports accessories. There are new robot couriers zipping down the aisles to assist employees in distribution.
At the new distribution center, WinCraft added 25 robots to supplement its hundreds of human employees. The new machines are like a souped-up Roomba carrying bins on top.
The Locus Robotics-made machines are tasked with ferrying items to be shipped from human pickers, who take the items off the shelves and place them into the robots’ bins, to human packers, who prep orders for delivery. The robots help to make the orders move faster as they can quickly run back and forth across the warehouse that is four football fields long.
The new facilities helped make WinCraft more efficient by consolidating operations that were once divided between six or seven different locations across town, and the new space provides room to grow.