Picnic's new automated distribution centre in Utrecht has been officially opened. King Willem Alexander gave the go-ahead for the operation at Lage Weide business park on Friday.
100 million euros went into the construction and furnishing of the new 42,000-square-metre location. The new DC is equipped with one hundred fully automated sorting, packing, and distribution machines, most of which were developed especially for Picnic. This does not mean that the lights can go out in the distribution centre; despite the automation, there are still 800 to 1,000 employees working in Utrecht. Picking products remains human work here, too.
Willem Alexander was shown around the new fulfilment centre and ventured to pick a crate of groceries. Distributed over three temperature zones, the DC offers space for 250,000 crates of products. Production in Utrecht will be scaled up in the coming period. By the end of this year, 150,000 households are expected to be delivered from the fulfilment centre.
