Cost to serve news

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...

Leading British dairy company, Dairy Crest, has announced a £75m investment into its Davidstow facility. Investing to increase production capacity The £75m investment is part of a wider £85m investment to grow the capacity of Dairy Crest’s cheese business. It will be used to increase the production capacity at the manufacturer’s site in Davidstow, Cornwall by 200m litres of milk a year – in...

JD.com has invested $306m in China’s second largest logistics company, ESR. Expanding across Asia JD.com’s logistics arm, JD Logistics, has invested in e-Shang Redwood (ESR) in order to strengthen their existing relationship and create an improved logistics service across Asia Pacific. ESR is China’s second largest logistics business, operating over 10m square metres of warehouse space acro...

Co-op customers in Milton Keynes can now have their groceries delivered by robot.  The Monkston branch has been trialling unaccompanied robot delivery for the past four weeks, promoting the service using targetted local social media marketing. Between 10-15 robots are being used and around 1,000 orders have been dispatched since the project went live a month ago. Robots "understand" their envi...

Sainsbury's has become the UK's first grocer to trial electric cargo bicycles for its grocery home delivery service. Speed and environmental advantages The trial will test the potential for electric bikes as a more efficient way to deliver groceries to customers in congested cities and offers distinct advantages. Bikes can make use of cycle and bus lanes and can achieve point to point del...

As it looks to expand its ecommerce offer in Paris, Leclerc has strengthened its position by signing an agreement with ID logistics. Paris to act as testing ground for Leclerc The retailer is set to use Paris as a test bed for initiatives to help it target shoppers in large cities, both in terms of physical stores and digital commerce. The new agreement will see ID Logistics support Leclerc...

Tesco and Booker have confirmed that their merger has become effective as of 8am on 5 March 2018, following court approval. Resounding 'yes' vote from both sets of shareholders The completion of the merger follows a resounding vote in favour of the deal last week, with 85% of Tesco shareholders and 83% of Booker shareholders backing the merger. The merger will result in a vertically-integra...

German discounter, Rewe, has stated that it intends to invest over a billion euros in its logistics network. Seven automated facilities The discounter plans to invest in seven new logistics facilities, one in each of Rewe’s regions in Germany. All of Rewe’s 19 existing distribution centres will either be overhauled and fully automated or closed. The first facilities are expected to be opera...