Ocado has commenced operations at its first customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in Spain in association with Alcampo.
The facility features Ocado’s latest technologies, including On-Grid Robotic Pick (OGRP) and Automated Frameload (AFL), the company added.
The Auchan subsidiary expects to deliver more than 70,000 orders per week from the CFC to customers in the Community of Madrid and part of Castilla-La Mancha.
The facility will focus entirely on preparing online orders that will be delivered in electric or hybrid vehicles to customers.
The retailer plans to expand the service to more areas in due course.
Alcampo already uses Ocado’s In-Store Fulfilment (ISF) software across hypermarkets nationwide to enable efficient picking from stores, covering their food and non-food business, Ocado noted.
'A Step-Change' In Service Quality
Gregor Ulitzka, president of Europe at Ocado Solutions, stated, “Our partnership with Alcampo is already generating a step-change in the quality of service that customers can expect online. We look forward to these benefits reaching even more customers with this state-of-the-art, automated Customer Fulfilment Centre: the first of its kind in Spain.”
The facility, spanning 27,500 square metres, is equipped with 36 loading and unloading docks.
It will generate more than 400 new jobs, including order preparation, packaging and delivery, once fill operational in September 2024.
Alcampo teamed up with Ocado solutions in 2021 for its 'digital proximity project', investing €19.4 million.
The commencement of operations at the CFC marks the completion of this project.
Antonio Valverde, director of digital proximity at Alcampo, added, “The CFC (Customer Fulfilment Centre) is the finishing touch to an ambitious project that will allow us to be leaders in phygital food retail in Spain and to make our promise to customers a reality every day, so that they can buy and receive their purchase how, when and where they want.”
