A joint venture between the Japanese tech and telecom giant Softbank and Massachusetts firm Symbotic Inc. is investing $144 million in a new distribution center between Atlanta and Macon.
While GreenBox Systems LLC prides itself on automation through a symphony of AI-powered software and automated robots, the facility in Jackson, Ga., is expected to create 300 jobs.
The million-square-foot development is to be situated in Butts County east of Interstate 75 within The Cubes at River Park, an industrial park just a mile and a half off the highway.
The facility also happens to be about a 10-minute drive from The Lakes at Green Valley in Griffin, Ga., which is home to five Japanese companies.
The corridor between the Atlanta airport and Macon has seen heavy logistics investment in the past few years, with locales like Henry County attracting international companies creating thousands of jobs. Among many examples, Dutch firm NewCold invested $333 million in a new facility near names like Korea’s Zinus and Italy’s Luxottica, which employs more than 1,000 people.
With the GreenBox announcement, Butts County is angling to gain a larger slice of such investments in the future.
GreenBox was formed in July 2023 to bring Symbotic’s automation solutions to the “warehouse-as-a-service” market, where retailers and wholesalers contract out their fulfillment to third parties using the latest technology to provide greater flexibility and speed to market. Softbank owns about two-thirds of venture, which is tasked with selling up to $7.5 billion in Symbotic installations.
“GreenBox demonstrates how AI is transforming the logistics industry, simultaneously creating higher-skilled, well-paying jobs of the future,” said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson in a news release.
Atlanta has become a hotbed for companies driving automation in the warehouse space using robotics, from France’s Exotec, China’s Geekplus and Japan’s Mujin to Dutch firm Vanderlande’s collaboration with China’s Hai Robotics.
The city is also home to warehouse innovators like outsourced supply chain provider Stord, valued at more than a billion dollars, and co-warehousing pioneer Saltbox, in addition to legacy software companies like Manhattan Associates.
For its part, Symbotic went public through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, backed by $200 million from Softbank and a consortium of investors including Walmart, which has also been a key customer.
