Samsung Electronics has partnered with Manna Drone Delivery to introduce an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivery service in Oranmore, Ireland.
Manna has developed an aerospace grade UAV to deliver products directly to customer’s homes, and in a first for Samsung, it will now allow online orders from its Irish eStore to be delivered by drone.
According to Samsung, this will provide customers with an end-to-end contactless experience.
Eamonn Grant, head of online for Samsung Ireland, said: “At Samsung we are always looking for ways to bring meaningful innovation to our customers so we’re really excited to be the first technology company in Ireland to make our products available to our customers via drone delivery.
“To be able to deliver our products to our customers within three minutes of leaving the dispatch centre is a brilliant example of innovation in motion.
“In the current environment, there is no better time to provide a contactless alternative to ‘click and collect’ and we are really thrilled to be partnering Manna to achieve this.”
Whilst currently the drone delivery option is only available to Oranmore-based customers, who purchase a Galaxy device, the new collaboration aims to expand this service nationwide in the future.
Alan Hicks, CTO of Manna, added: “This partnership with Samsung marks the first of its kind in the world. To date, we have been working with Tesco and local businesses to deliver grocery, hot food, books and pharmacy items, to people in the area.
“We recognise that the potential for the application of drone delivery is enormous.
“Samsung is one of the most innovative and widely recognised brands globally that always puts its customers front and centre. It’s for this reason we are genuinely excited to be embarking on this next chapter with them.”
