— Trusted by —
Orion is a UK OEM and technology house building the full automation stack: mechanical systems, electrical engineering, controls, WCS, live data and support.
Conveyors, Helix sortation, robotics, AMRs, print & apply and turnkey systems — designed to reduce labour, increase capacity and prove the payback.
Every missed shift, every agency worker, every overtime spike and every dispatch bottleneck adds cost. Helix is built for the decision makers who are tired of throwing people at a process that needs engineering.
Grow throughput inside your existing footprint and stop letting space constraints cap revenue.
Reduce handballing, mis-sorts, bottlenecks and operator dependency at peak.
Compare monthly finance against agency labour, overtime and rework.
Win contracts with a modular automation story your customers can understand.
parcels/hour subject to configuration.
Monthly finance route available across the full Orion range.
Designed for rapid module access.
Standard core product warranty.
Built, coded and supported here.
Bags. Boxes. Awkward parcels. Uneven loads. Mixed sizes. Peak windows.
Helix is not built for a perfect brochure parcel. It is built for the freight that makes manual sortation fall apart.
Each system is configured around your destinations, footprint, parcel profile and dispatch flow — with Orion WCS, live dashboards, controls and support included from day one.
Modular by design.
300mm cassette modules configured around the destinations, footprint and parcel profile you actually need.
WCS and dashboards included.
Routing, alarms, throughput, diagnostics and system health visible from day one — not a paid future add-on.
Built under one roof.
Mechanical, electrical, PLC, WCS, manufacture, installation and support owned by Orion from one UK facility.
Designed for fast repair.
Critical modules are designed for rapid access and replacement, backed by a 24-month warranty on the core product.
Two calculators in one panel. Helix ROI sizes a parcel sortation case against current operators. General process ROI turns any manual process — packing, labelling, picking, palletising — into an annualised cost and target saving.
A live estimate won't replace a site survey, but it gives finance and operations a real starting point: current cost, projected saving, monthly finance comparison and payback period.
Net monthly position: +£71k after finance & maintenance. 5-year ROI: 980%.
Add any manual process — packing, labelling, picking, palletising, dispatch admin. Cost/day uses UK minimum wage at £16.30/hr all-in and assumes 10% rework. Annualised across 250 working days; target saving assumes 50% reduction with automation.
| Process step | Mins/task | Tasks/day | Cost/day |
|---|
Target saving once automation removes ~half of the wasted process time. Live, indicative — not a quote. Send the table over and we'll size the automation route.
Many operations are already spending the monthly cost of automation on labour, overtime, agency cover and manual rework. Orion helps you compare that spend against UK-built automation — conveyor systems, Helix sortation, robotics, AMRs, print & apply and WCS — with finance routes built around payback.
Finance options available subject to specification & approval. We do not promise guaranteed approval — we help build the technical and commercial case.
Parcel centres, 3PLs and fulfilment teams all have different flows. The pressure is the same: more volume, tighter cut-offs, fewer reliable people and less space to play with. Pick the route that matches your operation.
Automated parcel sortation built for ugly freight.
Capacity that flexes with the contract.
End-of-line dispatch without the bottleneck.
Orion sits in the gap: faster than the global integrators, more complete than component suppliers, and accountable across mechanical, electrical, controls, WCS and support from one UK facility.
| Buyer concern | Traditional integrator | Component supplier | Orion position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Long discovery, long programme, heavy process. | Fast product supply, limited delivery ownership. | Modular Helix system, UK-built, faster route to site. |
| Accountability | Multiple teams and long escalation routes. | Customer / integrator owns the gaps. | Mechanical, electrical, controls, WCS and support under one roof. |
| Commercial model | Often CAPEX-heavy and board-process heavy. | Lower component price, incomplete system cost. | Clear ROI case against labour, overtime and manual process cost. |
| Software | Powerful, but often expensive and complex. | Usually not a full WCS layer. | WCS, dashboards and system visibility included as standard. |
Case studies from live UK automation projects across parcel handling, fulfilment, freight forwarding, healthcare logistics and food manufacturing. Where a customer name is public, we show it. Where it is not, we show the sector, problem and result without dressing it up.
Orion implemented a pick & pack solution handling up to 400 units per hour, with over 50% of materials sourced from recycled content — installed with zero downtime to live operations.
End-to-end design and install of an automated pick line — driving operational excellence through pick-to-light integration and goods-to-person flow.
Bespoke food-grade conveyor system engineered for continuous 24/7 operation in a live production environment, with zero permitted downtime.
Everything we get asked before signing scope — Helix specifics, Orion the company, integration, finance, install and support — in one place.
Cost depends on throughput, destinations, parcel profile, WCS scope, integration scope and install conditions. All Orion automation — conveyors, Helix sortation, robotics, AMRs, print & apply and WCS — is available on monthly finance, with entry systems typically from £4,000/month on a 60-month term, subject to specification and finance approval. The ROI engine above gives a sized estimate; send us your numbers and we'll come back with a formal proposal.
Yes. Orion can build automation projects around monthly finance routes, subject to specification and approval. This lets you compare equipment cost against labour, overtime and manual process cost — funding the automation against current operating cost rather than waiting for a heavy upfront CAPEX cycle.
Yes. Orion can provide finance routes for conveyor systems, subject to approval, allowing customers to spread the cost and compare monthly payments against operational savings. See conveyor system finance for the detail.
Yes. Helix parcel sortation systems can be structured around finance options, subject to specification and approval, helping parcel centres and 3PLs reduce manual sorting without waiting for a large CAPEX cycle. See sortation system finance.
Orion's ROI engine compares current labour, shift pattern, throughput and manual process cost against a sized automation route. It provides a starting point for payback, monthly cost comparison and five-year ROI. Open the ROI engine or read the full breakdown.
No. Finance is subject to specification, lender approval and commercial terms. Orion can help build the technical and commercial case, model the monthly finance figure against your current labour cost and present the proposal — but we do not promise guaranteed approval.
Helix is sized to your destination count, parcel mix and shift pattern. Live installations run between 4,000 and 20,000 parcels per hour, with the upper end driven by additional sorter slices and faster belt speeds. We model realistic throughput for your operation as part of the site survey — not a brochure number.
Yes. Helix is designed for real parcel environments — bags, boxes, mixed sizes, polybags, uneven loads and high-volume peaks. Anything outside the standard envelope is profiled in our UK facility before specification — we run sample parcels through a live Helix before signing scope.
Yes. Helix is built around 300mm cassette modules. Adding sort destinations later means extending the divert run and adding cages, not rebuilding the system. Customers regularly start with 16–24 destinations and expand as volume grows.
Yes — Orion WCS is included with every Helix system as standard, with dashboards, routing logic and alarming. For customers with an existing WMS or transport management platform, Helix integrates via REST API, MQTT or flat-file drop, confirmed during the Functional Design Specification stage. Live integrations exist across parcel, 3PL and fulfilment platforms.
Yes. Most projects involve extending, retrofitting or integrating with legacy conveyor, sortation, scanners or controls. We survey the existing kit first and design around it — rather than ripping out what is already working.
Yes — every part of the Orion automation range can be put on monthly finance: conveyors, Helix sortation, robotics, AMRs, print & apply and WCS — turning a CAPEX-heavy automation decision into a monthly OPEX line. Subject to specification and finance approval. We'll model the monthly finance figure against your current labour cost as part of the site visit.
Smaller conveyor packages can be on site in 6–10 weeks. Full Helix sortation systems typically run 12–25 weeks from order to live, with detailed timelines confirmed in the Functional Design Specification stage. Typical Helix install on site completes in under 4 weeks, with no building extensions or planning permission required.
Cassette modules are designed to be swapped in under 15 minutes with no specialist tools. Recommended spares are included in the proposal so the warehouse keeps running. Backed by a 24-month parts and labour warranty on the core product, with optional service contracts for ongoing cover.
ISO 9001:2015 certified, Avetta verified, EcoVadis rated. All systems are designed to UKCA and CE marking with conformity assessment to ISO 12100, ISO 13849, EN 619, BS 7671 and the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008. Full Statement of Manufacture and Declaration of Incorporation issued on completion.
Mechanical, electrical, PLC, WCS, controls software and support are all owned by Orion. Everything is designed, manufactured and supported from our UK facility in Chichester. We work with specialist component vendors for parts of the stack — vision cameras, motors, drives — but the system, the integration and the accountability sit with us.
Yes — and we recommend it. Bring your real parcel profile or a sample product. We'll run it through a live Helix or relevant conveyor system, walk the manufacturing floor and talk through similar projects we've delivered. No sales pitch, just engineering.
Bags, boxes, awkward freight, uneven loads, mixed sizes and peak-season pressure. If your current process is labour-heavy, inconsistent or reaching capacity, we should be speaking.