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Staples to Deploy Second Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System at Denver Greenfield Site

Combination of Kiva ItemFetch and OrderFetch modules to dramatically improve ability to pull work through facility with unlimited sorting down to the van route level

Woburn, MA - January 8, 2007 -Kiva Systems, a developer of breakthrough mobile solutions for the dynamic storage, movement and sortation of inventory, today announced that Staples, Inc. will be extending its use of the Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System (MFS) to its new Denver facility. Staples, which installed a Kiva MFS to expand the capacity of its Chambersburg, PA distribution center in 2006, will be deploying both the Kiva ItemFetch split-case picking and the OrderFetch shipping sorter solutions into the Denver facility to further reduce fulfillment cost and increase the facility’s operational speed and flexibility.

“The Kiva system we’ve deployed in Chambersburg has impressed us with both its speed and flexibility, but above all, it’s the most cost effective solution we have found when it comes to split-case order fulfillment,” said Don Ralph, senior vice president of Logistics Operations for Staples North American Delivery, Staples, Inc. “When we combine the Kiva ItemFetch and OrderFetch shipping solutions in our Denver facility, we will have a new capability to intelligently pull work through the building. Combined with sorts down to the van route level, this system will help us to further reduce costs and increase our customer service levels.”

The Kiva ItemFetch deployment in Staples’ Chambersburg facility has broken split-case fulfillment records for both Staples and Kiva Systems. Installed and ramped in record time, the Staples Chambersburg system is producing break-pack orders at a productivity rate that is more than twice that of facilities using other automated fulfillment systems. With well over a hundred mobile drive units in operation, this Kiva implementation is also the largest collection of autonomous robots operating anywhere in the world.

The Staples Denver site is a greenfield installation that will combine both the Kiva MFS ItemFetch and OrderFetch modules. The Kiva MFS employs mobile robotic drive units to route items and order containers to operator stations where items are picked and packed. Used together, Kiva’s ItemFetch and OrderFetch systems solve one of the toughest problems in the supply chain – the coupling of fulfillment operations with delivery operations where each have their own competing factors driving efficiency. In addition, the Denver site will further demonstrate the Kiva advantage around rapid deployment and ramp. The flexible, modular design and rapid installation of the Kiva solution allows for incremental capital deployment that, together with world class productivity rates, provides a quick return on investment.

“This new deployment and expansion by Staples reflects the broader industry demand for a material handling solution that breaks the traditional tradeoffs between productivity, flexibility, speed and accuracy” said Mick Mountz, founder and CEO of Kiva Systems. “Staples is a tremendous customer for us with a truly professional logistics team that quickly recognized the benefits of Kiva and continues to rapidly deploy the latest innovations to extend their market leadership.”

The Denver facility is one of many Staples fulfillment centers that provide fast delivery to home office and small business customers placing orders via Staples.com® and Staples catalogs as well as corporate customers that order primarily via StaplesLink.com®.

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