In the heart of Provence, a small French bottling company is proving that automation isn't just for large manufacturers. Bulles Création, based in Valréas, has doubled its production cadence and lifted the physical strain off its operators by deploying a Robotiq PE20 Palletizing Workcell at the end of its bottling line.
Founded in 2014 and based in Valréas, in the Provence region of southeastern France, Bulles Création is an 8-person company that offers bottling services for local winemakers while also developing its own sparkling beverages, including wine and non-alcoholic options like kombucha.
Bulles Création built its business on flexibility, bottling for local winemakers while developing its own effervescent drinks. But as demand grew, the company's production tools couldn't keep up. Its packaging line was capped at 1,500 bottles an hour.
The bottleneck wasn't just speed. It was also the toll manual palletizing took on operators. Every day, workers handled cartons of 6 or 12 bottles weighing up to 20 kg, stacking them at a pace of roughly 4.5 cartons a minute. That added up to 4 to 5 tonnes lifted per day.
"Labor shortages, physical strain, the need to boost productivity... this automation project aimed to provide an effective answer to several challenges shared by many food and beverage companies."
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Création
On top of the space and labor constraints, Bulles Création needed a solution flexible enough to adapt palletizing to its film-wrapping step, rather than a rigid, single-purpose setup.
To address it, the company invested more than €1 million to rebuild its bottling line and automate nearly all of it. The turning point came at the Prod&Pack trade show in November 2024, where Bulles Création's leadership met Isycod, Robotiq's integration partner for southeastern France.
Space was the deciding constraint. Bulles Création's production floor is tight, and a traditional industrial robot, with the heavy safety fencing it requires, simply wasn't an option.
The company turned to the PE20, Robotiq's automated Palletizing Workcell built around a UR20 collaborative robot from Universal Robots.
"It's the compactness, the ease of use, and the ability to adapt to multiple carton and pallet formats, all while meeting the specific constraints of our production site, that led us to choose the Robotiq Palletizing Workcell very quickly."
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Création
Isycod completed the integration at the end of the line, which required smart sequencing of the carton flow through an autonomous roller conveyor with three buffer zones. The system automatically spaces cartons apart to prevent collisions and keeps the cobot fed in real time.
One distinctive piece of the project was the integration of two film wrappers directly into the Workcell. That let the line run palletizing, wrapping, and pallet evacuation to shipping as one continuous sequence, with no manual handling in between. The hard part wasn't software, it was mechanical. Isycod had to fit those film wrappers to the Robotiq standard without resorting to major software changes.
That's also where Robotiq's software earns its keep. Operators configure, adjust, and launch palletizing recipes on their own, with no advanced robotics or programming skills required. Switching between carton or pallet formats is just as fast, letting operators reconfigure the line themselves without calling in outside help.
Equipped with a 3 kg Robotiq vacuum gripper built for heavy cartons, the cobot now handles cartons weighing up to 20 kg, putting the UR20's 25 kg payload to work. Running at a steady 4 cycles per minute and backed by native sensitivity sensors that trigger an instant stop on contact, the cell operates safely without a safety cage.
One year after automating its line, Bulles Création is already seeing the payoff.
"Today, I don't understand why everyone isn't doing this. Collaborative palletizing has genuinely helped us. This project shows exactly how small and medium-sized French food and beverage companies can modernize their production tools to become more competitive, grow their order book, and become more attractive employers."
Bruno Quenin, co-manager of Bulles Création
Bulles Création's story is a reminder that automation doesn't require a large footprint or a large team to pay off. With the right partner and the right cobot, an 8-person company can rebuild its end-of-line, double its output, and give its people better, safer work to do.
Want to see if collaborative palletizing fits your production floor? Try our Palletizing Fit Check to confirm feasibility, or explore the PE20 Palletizing Workcell for yourself.
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