Cost to serve news

M&S’s vertical farming partnership with Infarm has been extended to six further London stores. Fresh herbs now grown at seven London stores With the success of the Clapham Junction store trial, launched in September, the new roll out brings vertical farming to stores in Bromley, Ealing, Kensington, Marble Arch, Stratford and Kings Road.  The technology means fresh herbs can be grown an...

AmazonFresh, Amazon’s grocery delivery service, is reducing its delivery charges for its Prime subscribers in Germany. Monthly subscription fee reduced from 9.99€ to 7.99€ In addition to the delivery fee, which is reduced to 3.99€ from a previous 5.99€ for orders worth less than 40€, the monthly membership fee for AmazonFresh has been reduced from 9.99€ to 7.99€. The reduction doesn’t apply...

Uber announced that it acquired a majority stake in Santiago-based grocery delivery service Cornershop, paving the way for the expansion of its food delivery service. Context Few days ago, Walmart Canada made a deal with Cornershop to expand its trial of express grocery delivery within the Greater Toronto area, while last year, Walmart has tried to buy the same delivery company for $225 m...

Woolworths in Australia has started building a new AU$135m fresh food distribution centre in Melbourne. New fresh food hub for Victoria The retailer has a 15-year lease on the new 57,000 sq m facility that will be located next to its meat supplier, Hilton Meat's distribution centre, in Truganina, west Melbourne. The new facility, due for completion towards the end of 2020, will replace the re...

Walmart trials autonomous vehicles (AVs) that operates in the ‘middle mile’ between the retailer’s warehouses and its store-adjacent package pickup kiosks. Ford vans Walmart is using Ford vans that are equipped with self-driving technology developed by Gatik AI, a Sillicon Valley startup. According to its CEO, the vehicles are able to drive up to 200 miles per day in urban areas. So...

Global food company Kellogg announced a significant initiative to streamline its packaging portfolio in 2019. At its Company Investor Day in November, it described a move to just three standard pack sizes. The main aim of this is to improve consumers’ ability to shop for cereal products, by creating better differentiation between small, medium and large pack sizes. But in doing so, it should...

Auchan Retail is launching its first pedestrian Drive in France. Meeting rising shopper expectations Auchan France's pedestrian Drive in Lille promises to “ meet the expectations and lifestyles of an active urban clientele, keen to shop quickly, at the best price". Price incentives to customers The 130 sq. m Drive is open from 09:00 to 21:00 from Monday to Saturday. Orders are plac...

Coles has announced that it plans to open two new automated distribution centres over the next five years. Bringing global best practice to Australia Coles has partnered with Witron Logistics, a specialist in automated warehousing, to open the two ambient facilities. The new centres will be a big step forward for Coles in terms of modernising its supply chain, which delivers over 1bn carton...

Takeoff Technologies has announced the launch of its first automated hyperlocal fulfillment centre, referred to as the world’s first robotic supermarket. It is being launched in partnership with Sedano’s Supermarkets which has 34 locations catering to Florida’s booming Hispanic community. Takeoff’s automated and AI-enabled robotics assemble full grocery orders in a fraction of the time taken...

German retailer Rewe has opened a new automated warehouse near Cologne to improve fulfilment of online orders. Ecommerce is seeing strong growth in Germany, with Amazon and other pureplay operators launching and Rewe investing heavily amongst others. Automated and flexible The new facility, dubbed ‘Scarlet ONE’ has been built at a cost of EUR 80m, and replaces a previous warehouse which was...