Kroger opens two new spoke facilities
expanding service in the South and Midwest
CINCINNATI, Aug. 23,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR),
America's largest grocery retailer, today announced the official
opening of two new spoke facilities in Greater Nashville and the Chicago Metro Area. Serving as last-mile
cross-dock locations, the new spokes will operate as a seamless
extension of regional fulfillment centers, making Kroger Delivery
available to more customers in Tennessee and Illinois.
"Kroger Delivery promises an unparalleled shopping and delivery
experience, making fresh just one click away at Kroger.com or the
Kroger app," said Bill Bennett,
Kroger Vice President and Head of
E-commerce. "From personalized digital offers to our white glove
delivery service, the Kroger seamless ecosystem saves time and
money. Kroger Delivery orders are brought to customers in our
branded delivery trucks and delivered to their doorstep by our
trained and uniformed associates—all with zero compromise."
Local shoppers also have access to the newly launched Boost by
Kroger annual membership program. For either $59 or $99 per
year, Boost provides customers with benefits like unlimited free
delivery on orders of $35 or more and
two Fuel Points for every $1 spent on
groceries and general merchandise purchases through Delivery,
Pickup and in-stores. Kroger estimates the membership can save
customers more than $1,000 per year
on fuel and grocery delivery.
Nashville,
Tennessee
The approximately 40,000-square-foot
facility will work in conjunction with the Atlanta fulfillment center, increasing
the network's reach to customers up to 200 miles from the hub.
The facility is located on Polk Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee and will employ more than
180 associates.
"Tennessee is defined by the
brands that call our state home, so we are proud to partner with
the Kroger Delivery team as the company establishes and opens its
operations in Davidson County.
Nashville's pro-business climate
and central location will be vital in helping Kroger expand its
customer delivery reach across the Southeast for years to come,"
said Stuart McWhorter, Tennessee
Economic & Community Development Commissioner.
Maywood, Illinois
(Chicago)
Located
approximately 20 miles west of Chicago in Maywood, Illinois, the nearly 80,000-square-foot
facility will work concurrently with the fulfillment
center in Pleasant Prairie,
Wisconsin. The site expects to employ more than 180
associates. "Kroger facility replaces a blighted area
while adding new jobs and revenues that aid in the revitalization
of our community. We are happy to welcome a partner that works to
address our food desert designation and look to evolving
collaboration with them," said Maywood Mayor, Nathaniel George Booker.
Kroger Delivery Explained
The expansion in
Greater Nashville and the
Chicago Metro Area represents an
extension of a partnership between Kroger and
Ocado Group, a world leader in technology for grocery
e-commerce. In 2018, the companies announced a collaboration to
establish a delivery network that combines artificial intelligence,
advanced robotics, and automation in a bold new way, bringing
first-of-its-kind technology to America.
The delivery network relies on highly automated fulfillment
centers. At the hub sites, more than 1,000 bots move around giant
3D grids, orchestrated by proprietary control systems. The grid,
known as The Hive, contains totes with products and
ready-to-deliver customer orders. As customers' orders near
delivery times, bots retrieve products from The Hive and present
them at pick stations for items to be sorted for delivery, a
process governed by algorithms that ensure items are intelligently
packed. For example, fragile items are placed on top, bags are
evenly weighted, and each order is optimized to fit into the lowest
number of bags, reducing plastic use. Bags are also recyclable,
reflecting Kroger's commitment to its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste
commitment to rid its communities of hunger and waste.
"The continued expansion of the Kroger fulfillment network means
improved access to fresh food for customers eager for the variety
and value offered by Kroger that once could only be accessed
through our stores," said Gabriel
Arreaga, Kroger's Senior Vice President and Chief Supply
Chain Officer. "This network enables Kroger to add scale, achieve
reliability of experience, gain from the benefits of automation and
ultimately widen our customer reach in current operating regions
and new parts of the U.S."
Kroger's end-to-end cold solutions keep groceries fresh once
loaded into customized refrigerated delivery van, which can store
up to 20 orders. Powerful machine learning algorithms optimize
delivery routes, considering factors such as road conditions and
optimal fuel efficiency. Vans may travel up to 90 miles with orders
from the hub and spoke facilities to make deliveries. Associates at
the spoke facility will deliver orders within their service area,
adding ZIP codes as demand grows.
Kroger currently operates customer fulfillment centers in
Monroe, OH, Groveland, FL, Forest Park, GA (Atlanta), Pleasant
Prairie, WI, Dallas, TX and
Romulus, MI (Detroit), with additional customer fulfillment
centers slated for California,
Frederick, MD, Phoenix, AZ, Cleveland, OH, Charlotte, NC, Aurora, CO (Denver), as well as South Florida and the Northeast.
Media Assets
To download Kroger
Delivery photography and video,
visit here.
About Kroger
At The Kroger Co.
(NYSE: KR), we are Fresh for Everyone™ and dedicated to our
Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit®. We are, across our family of
companies, nearly half a million associates who serve over 11
million customers daily through a seamless shopping experience
under a variety of banner names. We are committed to
creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To
learn more about us, visit our newsroom and
investor relations site.
About Ocado Group
Ocado Group is a UK based
technology company admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange
(Ticker OCDO). It provides end-to-end online grocery
fulfillment solutions to some of the world's largest grocery
retailers and holds a 50% share of Ocado Retail Ltd in
the UK in a Joint Venture with Marks & Spencer. Ocado
has spent two decades innovating for grocery online,
investing in a wide technology estate that includes robotics, AI
& machine learning, simulation, forecasting, and edge
intelligence.
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SOURCE The Kroger Co.