Cranswick deploys Rockwell Automation robotics at 240 picks per minute to automate its most labor-intensive packaging line

Cranswick Plc, one of Britain's largest premium food producers, now runs its pigs-in-blankets packaging line at 240 robotic pick-and-place cycles per minute after commissioning a fully automated end-of-line system built on Rockwell Automation controls and autonox Delta robots. The announcement, published on June 23, 2026, via PRNewswire and reported through Financial Times Markets data, marks one of the more operationally specific food-sector robotics deployments disclosed this year in the UK.

The line in question handles millions of sausage units every year for the Christmas season. Until the new system went live, the final packaging stage relied on manual labor: workers picked sausages off a conveyor and placed them into packaging trays, a task that created bottlenecks and imposed hard limits on throughput. Cranswick engaged systems integrator CWM Automation to design and deliver a replacement, working under a deadline tied directly to seasonal production targets.

How the system works

The architecture centers on Allen-Bradley Kinetix VP low-inertia servo motors paired with an Allen-Bradley GuardLogix 5380 safety controller, both from Rockwell Automation. The safety controller handles real-time detection of each sausage's position and orientation on the conveyor. Once the system identifies placement, an autonox Delta robot picks the product, corrects its alignment, and places it in the target package slot, completing that cycle 240 times per minute.

CWM Automation holds Gold-Level OEM status within the Rockwell partner ecosystem, which gave the integration team direct access to Rockwell systems consultants during the build. According to the PRNewswire announcement, the collaboration between CWM, Cranswick's own engineering staff, and Rockwell's technical team was central to hitting the production deadline.

The operational outcome, as described by Cranswick's chief engineering manager Mark Lundgren in the announcement, is a meaningful shift in how labor is deployed on the line. Workers who previously handled the repetitive pick-and-place task have moved to higher-skill roles or been redeployed to other lines entirely, improving both productivity and job quality. For operations teams evaluating automation ROI in food manufacturing, that labor-redeployment story matters as much as the throughput number.

The broader UK robotics investment wave

The Cranswick deployment does not sit in isolation. According to a 2026 survey by IMI's Industrial Automation sector, covered by Automation Magazine, robotics tops the list of planned automation investments among UK industrial operators over the next five years, with interconnectivity cited as a key enabler. That prioritization reflects a structural shift: manufacturers are moving beyond isolated automation pilots toward integrated systems that share data across lines and facilities.

Automation Magazine also notes a parallel push in smart manufacturing around visual intelligence, with factories increasingly treating camera and sensor data as a core operational asset rather than a quality-control afterthought. That trend maps directly onto deployments like Cranswick's, where vision-based orientation detection is what makes high-speed, consistent pick-and-place viable on irregularly shaped food products.

A third thread running through current UK automation activity is the demand for systems that can adapt when production inputs change. An Automation Magazine analysis published July 20, 2026 examined how flexible machine architectures must handle material variability without halting lines, a challenge that food producers running seasonal SKUs know well. Cranswick's need to spin up, validate, and hit rate targets on a Christmas-specific line under a fixed calendar deadline is a direct example of that pressure.

What this means for food and beverage operations teams

• Audit your highest-volume manual packaging stages first: end-of-line pick-and-place on repetitive products is now a proven automation target, even for irregular shapes like sausages that require orientation correction.
• Evaluate safety controller integration early: the GuardLogix 5380's real-time detection capability is doing functional safety and motion coordination simultaneously; specifying the controller architecture before the robot selection will reduce integration rework.
• Plan labor redeployment before go-live, not after: Cranswick's ability to move workers to higher-skill roles was a design objective, not a side effect. Operators who map that transition in advance will capture productivity gains faster and reduce workforce friction.
• Assess OEM partner tier when selecting an integrator: CWM Automation's Gold-Level status gave the project direct access to Rockwell's technical consultants under a hard deadline. For time-sensitive seasonal production, partner certification level is an operational variable, not just a procurement checkbox.

Rockwell Automation employs approximately 26,000 people across more than 100 countries, according to the company's fiscal year end 2025 figures. Its autonox Robotics collaboration, now visible in a named UK food-sector deployment, positions the platform as a direct option for operators evaluating delta-robot pick-and-place against competing systems. The next test will be whether the Cranswick line's performance data surfaces publicly after the 2026 Christmas production run concludes.