Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

Kroger, Ocado to open CFC in Dallas

Grocery retailer selects North Texas location for its fifth high-tech customer fulfillment center, designed to speed e-grocery fulfillment.

The Kroger Co. and online grocery retailer Ocado Solutions plan to open a high-tech, automated customer fulfillment center (CFC) in Dallas, the companies said September 12.

The Dallas facility will be the fifth of 20 CFCs Cincinnati-based Kroger said it plans to open. CFCs are automated warehouses with digital and robotic capabilities designed to speed order fulfillment and accommodate growing customer demand for e-grocery shopping. Kroger broke ground on its first CFC in Monroe, Ohio, in June, and followed that with the start of construction on a CFC in Groveland, Fla. The two other planned CFCs will be located in Forest Park, Ga., and the Mid-Atlantic region, the companies said.


The Dallas CFC will measure 350,000 square feet and is expected to create up to 400 new jobs, Kroger and Ocado said. Officials said they will break ground in Dallas early in 2020.

Ocado Solutions is a dedicated online grocery retailer in the United Kingdom that provides its Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) as a service to retailers around the world. Its CFCs, also known as "sheds," combine automation, robotics, and software for single-pick operations and to speed order fulfillment. 

The Latest

More Stories

photos of forklifts in warehouses

2025 IFOY Awards nominees announced

Seventeen innovative products and solutions from eleven providers have reached the nomination round of the IFOY Award 2025, an international competition that brings together the best new material handling products for warehouses and distribution center operations.

The nominees this year come from six different countries and will compete head-to-head during a Test Camp that will be held March 26 and 27 in Dortmund, Germany. The Test Camp allows hands-on evaluation and testing of products based on engineering and operational design. In contrast to the usual display of products at a trade show, The Test Camp also allows end-users and visitors to the event the opportunity to experience these technologies hands-on as they would operate in a facility.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Happy interesting New Year

While Christmas is always my favorite time of the year, I have always been something of a Scrooge when it comes to celebrating the New Year. It is traditionally a time of reflection, where we take stock of our lives and make resolutions to do better. I’ve always felt that I really didn’t need a calendar to remind me to kick my bad habits in favor of healthier routines. If I was not already doing something that was good for me, then making promises I probably won’t keep after a few weeks is not really helpful.

But as we turn the calendar to 2025, there is a lot to consider this new year. The election is behind us, and it will be interesting to see how supply chains react to the new administration. We’ve been told to expect sharp increases in tariffs, like those the president-elect issued in his first term. Will these cause the desired shift away from goods made in China?

Keep ReadingShow less
a blurred image of a forklift in a warehouse

Lift Truck Roundtable: An inside look at a volatile market

Roundtable participants:

MARTIN BOYD, CMO, Big Joe Forklifts

Keep ReadingShow less
trends in robotics

IFR: five trends will drive robot growth through 2025

As the global market value of industrial robot installations passes its all-time high of $16.5 billion, five trends will continue to drive its growth through 2025, according to a forecast from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

That is important because the increased use of robots has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of labor shortages in manufacturing, IFR said. That will happen when robots automate dirty, dull, dangerous or delicate tasks – such as visual quality inspection, hazardous painting, or heavy lifting—thus freeing up human workers to focus on more interesting and higher-value tasks.

Keep ReadingShow less
photo of containers at port of montreal

Port of Montreal says activities are back to normal following 2024 strike

Container traffic is finally back to typical levels at the port of Montreal, two months after dockworkers returned to work following a strike, port officials said Thursday.

Canada’s federal government had mandated binding arbitration between workers and employers through the country’s Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) in November, following labor strikes on both coasts that shut down major facilities like the ports of Vancouver and Montreal.

Keep ReadingShow less