The founder of award-winning North East robotics firm Wootzano has announced that the company is "back" after a Scottish court granted a "sist," pausing its liquidation. Scientist Atif Syed founded the Tyneside-based maker of automated food packing systems in 2018, quickly growing the business and securing multimillion-pound orders from around the world, including the US and Japan.
Last year, The Journal reported that Wootzano faced winding up following a petition from Innovate UK, a Government-owned agency. Companies House records show a winding up order was issued in November. The company had taken a £838,000 Innovate UK Innovation Loan in 2022 to develop a vision-based subsystem for its Avarai robots, but when the subsystem was not commercialised within the allotted time, it led to the petition.
New Leadership and Resumed Operations
In a social media post, Mr Syed revealed that the firm has been fighting for survival over the past six months but has now recruited a new chief financial officer and chief commercial officer. He is stepping away from his CEO role to focus on technology and engineering, describing it as "what I have always loved most."
"The belief shown in Wootzano, by the Court, by our customers, and by everyone who refused to give up on us, is something I carry with me," Mr Syed said. "Our responsibility now is to honour that belief through our delivery, our technology, and our results. The robots are being built again. The deliveries are going out again. And the technology that earned global recognition and put Britain on the map for true robotics is now back to work."
Award-Winning Company
Wootzano was named North East Business of the Year in 2024 after winning a series of multimillion-pound contracts worldwide. The company developed specialised robots for fruit and food picking, starting at the NETPark science and business park in County Durham before moving to a new base at the Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside.
