Alcampo’s CFC (Customer Fulfilment Centre), a robotic warehouse powered by Ocado’s smart platform, has begun to take the first steps in an initial phase that will culminate in September of this year.
The warehouse is entirely intended for the preparation of online orders that will be delivered in electric or hybrid vehicles to customers in the Community of Madrid and part of Castilla-La Mancha, with plans to increase the scope in the next stages that will be developed from 2025.
Located in the Madrid town of San Fernando de Henares, it has the latest Ocado robotics technology, including Automated Frameload (AFL) and On-Grid Robotic Pick (OGRP), a robotic arm that uses technologies such as computer vision, being one of the examples of reinforcement learning in robotics in production environments.
It is not set to entirely replace humans however as the plant’s activity will generate more than 400 new jobs, including order picking, packaging and delivery (managed by Salvesen Logística).
With the addition of up to 1,000 fully functioning robots, Alcampo will be able to prepare up to 70,000 orders a week to be delivered between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., guaranteeing a complete food and non-food shopping experience, including fresh market produce, one of the company’s flagships. The new warehouse, measuring 27,500 square metres and with 36 loading and unloading docks, was built by the company Prologis.
For Antonio Valverde, Director of Digital Proximity at Alcampo, “the CFC 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.”
Phygital (physical plus digital) is a marketing term that describes blending digital experiences with physical ones.
According to Gregor Ulitzka, President of Ocado Solutions for Europe, “Our collaboration with Alcampo is already generating a significant change in the quality of online service for customers. We hope that these benefits will reach more customers with this automated warehouse, the first of its kind in Spain.”
With the start of operation of this warehouse, the most important milestone, the digital proximity project initiated in 2021 together with OCADO Solutions is completed, in which Alcampo has invested 19.4 million euro. This project involved a development plan, which included three major projects: the renovation of the online shopping website www.alcampo.es and the incorporation of an APP, the implementation of the IFS 1 procedure in hypermarkets and supermarkets that prepare online sales orders and the development of this smart warehouse.
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