Russia's X5 Retail Group has unveiled two new distribution centres in Yekaterinburg and Kosulino, which will help boost logistics operations and local sourcing in the Ural, Volga and Siberian Federal Districts.
The group said that the Yekaterinburg DC features over 35,500 square metres of space and will service 1,260 Pyaterochka stores in the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Kemerovo regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, and Perm territories.
It features six storage zones with individual temperature bands, in order to make the facility capable of accommodating all categories of products.
High Tech
In a statement, X5 Retail Group said that the Yekaterinburg DC 'is among the most high-tech in Russia. The centre will deploy innovative solutions like dynamic slotting, EDI systems to maintain shelf availability and plan sales, and RFID technology to label goods and monitor their movement online.
'All these solutions, along with biometric employee identification, will help double labour productivity compared to peers.'
Kosulino DC
In addition, the Kosulino DC is set across 13,700 square metres, and will support some 36 Perekrestok supermarkets and nine Karusel hypermarkets in the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk regions, Perm territory, and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra.
It will be the first X5 DC to service the Perekrestok and Karusel chains in the Urals.
X5 said that the new DCs 'will ensure the freshness and availability of goods as X5 continues its rapid expansion. They will also help to cut transportation costs and unlock new opportunities for local producers,' as well as 'help to increase sales volumes for local producers and make their products available in new regions.'
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
