Grocery retail giant The Kroger Co. and Ocado, a dedicated online grocery retailer, broke ground earlier this month on its first customer fulfillment center (CFC). The fulfillment center is an automated warehouse facility with digital and robotic capabilities (it is also known as a shed).
The company's first CFC is being constructed in Monroe, Ohio.
Kroger is investing $55 million to build the CFC, which will measure 335,000 square feet and is expected to generate more than 400 new jobs.
Kroger intends to open 20 CFCs. Two additional sites have been selected in the Central Florida and Mid-Atlantic regions.
The cost for the first three CFC is estimated to cost $114 million, according to Ocado.
Ocado Solutions platform will allow Kroger to assemble an order of approximately 50 items in six minutes with robotics in an automated warehouse instead of approximately 30 to 45 minutes with a Kroger employee picking them up from various areas of the store, according to Luke Jensen, CEO of Ocado Solutions.
Robots collect and pack orders at an Ocado fulfillment center in the U.K.
