Formic's New Chicagoland HQ Is Open: Here's What's Inside

On June 11th, we officially opened the doors to our new 53,000-square-foot headquarters in Chicagoland, with 5x more room for our growing automation lineup. Customers, partners, and Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta of Bolingbrook, IL, joined us to celebrate the move and the milestone of surpassing 650,000 production hours across our robot fleet.

The event kicked off with an official robot ribbon-cutting ceremony, as two Formic systems sliced through a Formic-orange ribbon to mark the grand opening. Then, Formic’s COO, Danijel Lolic, and CRO Shawn Fitzgerald explained how Formic got here: from one singular palletizing solution to a full-service lineup that's expanded into entire new categories.

“You’re not just touring the building; you’re seeing the next chapter of where Formic is headed,” Fitzgerald said.

With running systems across the floor, the event showcased the scale of the operation behind our mission to make automation easy and accessible for U.S. manufacturers of all sizes.

Expanding Our Automation Lineup

Attendees got a live look at the systems Formic is known for and a first peek at what's heading out the door to customer facilities next.

A row of palletizers ran at full capacity. A case packer ran customer product. A pallet wrapper demonstrated how quickly a pallet gets stabilized. A machine tending system filled trays. Four systems, all running, a snapshot of where Formic's automation lineup stands today.

"Machine tending opens the door to a whole new category of manufacturers - facilities that have never had a real path to automation,” Lolic said. “Now they do. The model is the same: flat monthly rate, full service, contracted uptime. We're not changing what we are, just reaching more manufacturers who need us.”

Celebrating Our Next Chapter

The grand opening brought together Formic customers, partners, and our new neighbors to celebrate how automation will revitalize U.S. manufacturing, making it more accessible and flexible, eliminating traditional barriers, and closing the labor gaps impacting nearly all manufacturers.

Looking ahead, Formic will open its West Coast facility in Oakland, CA, on August 19th. If you missed us in Bolingbrook, join us at our new R&D facility and get a look at our in-the-works projects. RSVP here.