(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
By Isoken Osagie
(CINCINNATI) Kroger announced Wednesday the launch of its first Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) with vertical integration, machine learning and robots.
According to Bloomberg, it's a late move in entering the e-commerce market that is currently dominated by Walmart and Amazon but still a step in the right direction.
In a press release, the company said its new CFC is in partnership with Ocado Group, a company that specializes in grocery e-commerce, robotics and automation systems. Kroger said the move aims to provide an "affordable, friendly, and fast delivery service for fresh food."
The 375,000-square-foot facility is located in Monroe, Ohio, around 30 miles north of Kroger’s Cincinnati headquarters.
Bloomberg reports that Kroger's robots are the size of dishwashers. The machines retrieve cereal, soda and 28,000 other items from 21 levels of stacked crates before transporting them to workers who sort and deliver them to homes.
The fulfillment facility is equipped to pick 50-item orders in less than five minutes, significantly faster than a human worker grabbing items from a store.
Kroger's CFC is expected to open this spring and Bloomberg reports that it will serve a region stretching from Louisville, Kentucky, to Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, with same-day and next-day delivery service.
"Society has leapt into a new digital era, and so has Kroger," said Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen at an investor event last month, per Bloomberg. "There is still [a] huge opportunity in front of us."