OHIO, USA — The nation's largest grocery retailer is bringing its operations to Northeast Ohio.
On Wednesday, Kroger announced that it would be opening a Customer Fulfillment Center in the region. The 270,000 square feet facility will be powered by the Ocado Group.
According to a press release for the new facility, the venture will "combine vertical integration, machine learning, and robotics to provide an affordable, friendly, and fast fresh food delivery service as part of the company's seamless ecosystem."
Inside the facility, more than 1,000 bots will navigate 3D grids that contain totes filled with products and ready-to-deliver customer orders. As a customer's delivery time draws closer, the orders are moved to pick up station where they are carefully sorted to ensure the best quality and the least amount of bags. From there, the order are loaded into refrigerated vans where they will be delivered by zip code.
"We are excited to bring Kroger and Ocado's second automated warehouse to Ohio. As this site develops and goes live, it will be instrumental in delivering fantastic grocery experiences and exciting job opportunities to households across Cleveland, Pennsylvania and beyond," said Luke Jensen, CEO of Ocado Solutions.
The facility, which is set to become operational two years after the site breaks ground, is expected to create up to 400 new jobs.
"This will be Kroger Fulfillment Network's second hub distribution facility in the state, demonstrating the advantage Ohio provides to build out the U.S. supply chain," said JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef.
Kroger has partnered with both JobsOhio and Team NEO to deliver this project.
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*Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from a previous report.