Cost to serve news

Spar has announced plans for an automated site in the Netherlands. The move will increase the retailer’s ability to service its growing portfolio of stores in a more efficient way. It will also relieve pressure on the existing site in Waalwijk, which has been struggling to service growing demand. There are two key reasons for this. Firstly, an increase in volume generated by 130 Express stor...

Lidl, the fast-growing German discount retailer, has bought a site near Leeds to build its 17th regional distribution centre (RDC) in the UK. The company currently has 12 RDCs in operation and the Leeds site is the 5th in their pipeline of new warehouses: Doncaster, Bolton, Peterborough and Luton. The business has over 700 stores currently, supporting its market share of over 5% and growth r...

Australian retailer Woolworths has spoken more about its new automated distribution centre, which we highlighted in April 2018. The DC isn’t due to open until February 2019 but is being tested now. AU$500m project It’s been reported that the facility being built near Melbourne will now cost over AU$500m, but the automation will deliver not just efficiencies in supply chain operations. It wi...

The modernisation of Target’s supply chain operations was demonstrated recently when they ran an event to compete with Amazon’s Prime Day sale. Keeping operations running smoothly At the retailer’s recent Q2 investor call, the senior team described how the one-day event created their biggest digital sales day outside of a holiday season, driving sales of nearly three times forecast. John Mu...

Walmart has completed the acquisition of Flipkart, India’s leading ecommerce business, following plans announced earlier this year. The retailer is now the largest shareholder in the Flipkart Group. Walmart takes 77% share of the business Flipkart is India's largest online marketplace. Founded in 2007, it sells 8m products across 80 categories. It has 100m registered users, 100,000 sellers,...

Amazon has opened its second fulfillment centre in Australia, in the south western Sydney suburb of Moorebank. Second fulfillment centre in Australia The new centre is the first for the retailer in Sydney and second in Australia, after opening its first in Melbourne in late 2017. The new facility, which at 43,000 sq m is almost double the size of the one in Melbourne, will dramatically improv...

Walmart is partnering with Alert Innovation to pilot an in-store robotic picking system for grocery ecommerce orders. Alphabot: how it works The Alphabot technology is to be piloted at a supercenter in Salem, New Hampshire. The technology, which has been developed specifically for Walmart, will be housed in a 20,000 sq ft extension connected to the store. This will also serve as a dedicated...

To increase the convenience of grocery home delivery, Kroger will be piloting autonomous delivery vehicles. Partnership with Nuro Kroger will partner with Nuro, a company that makes fully unmanned vehicles, to trial the delivery initiative. Customers will be able to place orders for same day delivery, through ClickList or through a Nuro app. The first trial is expected to happen later this ...

Nestlé UK and XPO have unveiled plans to build a new distribution centre, dubbed the ‘digital warehouse of the future’. One of the world’s most advanced distribution centres The 59,000 sq m facility will be built in Leicestershire, UK, at the East Midlands Gateway Logistics Park. Scheduled for completion in 2020, it will be one of the most advanced distribution centres in the world. Test...

At its annual Global Smart Logistics Summit, Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao unveiled its ‘smart’ system to manage logistics facilities at scale. Introducing the Cainiao Future Park The new solution, the Cainiao Future Park, takes away the traditionally labour-intensive operations, including manual loading, scheduling and monitoring. It replaces them with systems based around Internet of...