Two founders, one story of success

“We were sitting there having a beer, and Lars told me about a problem that he, as a logistician, had to deal with almost every day: moving goods from one pallet to another,” recalls Ralf Schauties, thinking back to the evening in the summer of 2015 when the story of SW-Paratus GmbH began. ”My tinkerer’s ambition was awakened. I really wanted us to find a solution.” And they did.

What began as an evening brainstorming session quickly developed into a passionate project. The innovative idea: instead of moving the goods, the pallet is pushed under the goods. “We spent countless hours developing and building prototypes and testing them in the day-to-day operations of a distribution warehouse,” says Lars Wellerdiek.

It soon became clear that it works, and much better than initially thought. The two founders slowly realized that the invention not only solved Lars Wellerdiek’s problem, but would also make life easier for many other companies.
In 2016, they applied for a patent for their invention and began to market it on a part-time basis. “When we presented our system for the first time at LogiMAT in Stuttgart in spring 2017, we were literally overrun. The demand was huge. We even sold our exhibit,” recalls Lars Wellerdiek.

From then on, things really took off: a hobby became a business – SW-Paratus GmbH. Ralf Schauties and Lars Wellerdiek quit their jobs as sales representatives and logisticians, rented an office in the center of Halle and brought the first employee on board.

Today, SW-Paratus GmbH, with its PARATUS® brand, has become a global supplier of pallet changers. In addition, the company sells other useful equipment such as pallet magazines and pallet aligners, as well as pallets and supplementary logistics services.