Barely a year after opening its central distribution centre in Nieuwegein, Jumbo is focusing on expanding the premises. Processing capacity for perishables will be expanded by 6,000 square metres of mechanisation and a new mechanised DC for fresh produce will be built on the premises.
The new central distribution centre for fresh produce will have an area of 40,000 square metres. When Jumbo bought the plot of land in 2018, it was already taking expansion possibilities into account. Due to rapid growth, that expansion is now necessary. Karel de Jong, director of Supply Chain at Jumbo: "The expansion of CDC (central distribution centre, ed.) Nieuwegein comes earlier than originally planned. The further expansion of our shop base, the growth in online and the enlargement of our product range require faster action. It is therefore very pleasing that we have already taken the future expansion of mechanisation into account. Also, the site is set up in such a way that we can effectively scale up with the new CDC building for fresh produce."
According to De Jong, the location in Nieuwegein is very suitable for transporting fresh products with a somewhat longer shelf life to all our shops. "This will free up our regional distribution centres to focus more on 'ultra-fresh' products, such as fruit and vegetables. This is much needed, as our growth means that the demand for products from that category is also rising very strongly."
Expansion dc shelf-life
The distribution centre's current high bay warehouse (inbound process) for the perishable category will be expanded by 1,700 square metres of mechanisation in two additional high bay aisles. The order picking area will be enlarged by 4,500 square metres including 11 robotised lines. For the expansion, Jumbo has chosen - as in the existing section - an Order Picking Machine (OPM), which ensures that almost all products can be placed mechanically on the roll container. The order of stacking the roll container matches the way the products are displayed on the shelves in the shops.
The expansion in this DC will increase the total size in the premises by over 6,000 square metres to more than 50,000 square metres. The number of items in the longer shelf-life category may increase to around 16,000 in the coming years. With the additional capacity, the number of packages of long-life products will grow from 2 million to 2.6 million per week.
Dc fresh produce
After the opening, the fresh food DC will focus on the mechanised national distribution of fresh products with a shelf life of eight days or more. This category includes items such as dairy, cheese, meat products, tapas, salads and chilled drinks.
On Wednesday, the first pile symbolically went into the ground. Jumbo expects to take the expansion of the existing DC for the perishable category into use in a year's time. The new mechanised DC for fresh produce is expected to be ready in early 2024.
