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Kroger, British online grocer Ocado to build robot-powered warehouse in Groveland

Kroger, British online grocer Ocado to build robot-powered warehouse in Groveland

by DeVore Design, March 29, 2019

Supermarket chain Kroger and British online grocery company Ocado plan to build a 350,000-square-foot warehouse on the north side of Groveland, company and local government officials said Tuesday.

The 375,000-square-foot customer fulfillment center will be in an industrial park on American Way near U.S. Highway 27. It should employ about 400 people, and construction is slated to start later this year with an opening date of 2021. No starting wages were announced other than to say they would be “high paying.”

Kroger doesn’t have any grocery stores in Florida, but it did invest in niche grocery chain Lucky’s Market, which is quickly expanding in the Metro Orlando region.

The “advanced robotics” customer fulfillment center will store and ship Kroger grocery items in the region. Ocado is supplying the technology for the center.

The company recently announced a U.S. headquarters in Virginia and is building another warehouse in Ohio. Ocado did about $1.9 billion in sales in 2018.

“[The warehouse] will be a Kroger operated facility powered by Ocado,” said an email Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard. “It will used by Kroger to serve residents/customers.”

The partnership between Ocado and Kroger calls for the construction of 20 warehouses in the United States.

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