Mercadona has announced plans to invest around €35 million in the construction of a new warehouse in Huévar del Aljarafe, near Seville, where it already operates a logistics facility.
The new warehouse will cover around 36,700 square metres, and be constructed on a plot totalling 88,000 square metres. Mercadona anticipates that the new warehouse will be fully operational in the year 2021.
The purpose of the new warehouse will be to implement a new system for storing and preparing fresh produce, which will help drive greater efficiency into the Spanish market leader's operations.
Automated System
The new facility will operate a 'PPG (Picking Puente Grúa)' automated system, which will automatically prepare pallets of meat, fruit and vegetables for distribution.
It will add to approximately 83,000 square metres worth of logistics facilities at Mercadona's Huévar del Aljarafe site, which employs around 800 staff, and distributes products to 167 supermarkets in Seville, Cádiz, Huelva, Badajoz and Canarias.
The PPG system was first introduced to the group's logistics operation in Guadix, Granada, which opened in October 2013.
Mercadona operates 350 stores in the region of Andalusia, and purchased around €2.86 billion worth of products from Andalusian suppliers last year, which was €36 million more than the previous year.
Last year, Mercadona opened four new supermarkets in the region and refurbished a further 29 stores, at a cost of €88.5 million. It plans to invest around €27 million this year in refurbishing 12 out of its 69 supermarkets in and around the city of Seville.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
