IN Brief:
- The first deployment under the agreement is slated for 100+ robots.
- Brightpick’s system is designed to integrate with existing DC infrastructure and processes.
- NAPA is targeting faster handling and replenishment across a national store network.
Warehouse automation provider Brightpick has signed a strategic partnership with NAPA to deploy robotic fulfilment systems across NAPA distribution centres, starting with a project involving more than 100 robots for high-volume processing.
The companies first worked together on a pilot project in 2025, which Brightpick says has been running successfully. NAPA then signed for an additional site in early 2026, with the agreement structured to allow further installations across other locations as requirements are proven and standardised.
Brightpick’s co-founder and CEO Jan Zizka framed the deal as a sector expansion. “Our partnership with NAPA is a huge milestone,” he said, pointing to the automotive aftermarket as Brightpick’s first customer segment in the category and its largest US customer to date.
For NAPA, the driver is service-level performance in a distribution model that carries both breadth and urgency. The company’s store network spans nearly 6,000 NAPA AUTO PARTS stores in the US and is supported by a nationwide distribution centre footprint, with the NAPA network also extending into more than 17,000 AutoCare and AutoCare Collision Centers. Even modest gains in pick speed, replenishment accuracy, and cut-off discipline compound quickly when the unit of measure is “parts availability by tomorrow morning”.
The announced approach is goods-to-person automation, where robots move totes or stock toward fixed workstations rather than forcing pickers to cover the distance. Brightpick says its robots are intended to integrate with existing warehouse technologies and workflows, using software and data-driven decisioning to support faster processing, improved accuracy, and higher throughput. That integration point matters in automotive parts distribution, where DCs frequently carry a mix of small-item density, awkward packaging, and high SKU churn — a combination that can break brittle automation designs.
Justin Ducharme, EVP, Distribution and Logistics at NAPA, linked the rollout to operational improvement rather than a single site retrofit. “This collaboration supports our goal of continuously improving how we serve our customers,” he said.
The first 100+ robot project is positioned as a high-volume installation rather than a limited pilot, which puts the emphasis on fleet management, congestion control, and exception handling from day one. Brightpick has previously pitched its robots as multi-purpose, moving between workflows such as order picking, buffering, consolidation, dispatch, and replenishment, although the exact task allocation for NAPA sites has not been detailed publicly.
In practical terms, the technology is being deployed into a distribution segment where customer tolerance for delay is low and substitutability is often poor. When a garage needs a specific part to clear a vehicle off a ramp, “close enough” inventory does not help. If Brightpick can deliver sustained throughput without creating new choke points at packing, induction, and staging, the partnership becomes a template for other automotive aftermarket operators facing the same labour and service-level constraints.
