Kroger opens doors to brand new spoke facility
in Louisville, Kentucky
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 2, 2022
/PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), America's largest
grocery retailer, today announced the official opening of a new
spoke location in Louisville,
Kentucky. The 50,000 square-foot facility will collaborate
with the Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) in Monroe, Ohio and will serve as a last-mile
cross-dock location that expands Kroger Delivery's ability to serve
more customers in the Greater
Louisville area.
"Kroger Delivery is part of our rapidly expanding seamless
ecosystem that provides customers with fresh and quality products –
anytime and anywhere," said Bill
Bennett, Kroger Vice
President and Head of E-commerce. "We are thrilled to expand
Kroger's offerings to more Louisville customers with a truly
differentiated customer experience. Local Kentucky residents can use Kroger.com or the
Kroger app to check the weekly circular, select personalized
digital coupons, search products by dietary preference and
ultimately place their order. Customers will enjoy receiving their
orders directly from our refrigerated trucks and delivered by
trained Kroger uniformed associates, giving customers an
unparalleled first-class delivery experience."
The spoke facility will employ up to 161 full-time associates.
Also, as part of Kroger's commitment to end hunger and eliminate
waste through its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social environmental
impact plan, the site will use recyclable bags and is working to
partner with local food banks.
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.
"Louisville has long been a
driver of innovation in the logistics and in the food and beverage
industries, and as such, Louisville is uniquely poised to fuel the
workforce and innovation demands necessary to drive these
industries into the future," said Mayor Greg Fischer. "I am excited to join our partners
at Kroger to celebrate this new dynamic facility that will drive
high-quality customer service."
Kroger Delivery Explained
The expansion in
Louisville represents an extension
of a partnership between Kroger and
Ocado, 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 ensures 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.
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.