Picnic will open a so-called superhub in mid-September at business park Lage Weide in Utrecht. From this largest hub in the Netherlands, the online supermarket will deliver groceries free of charge to over 200,000 households in the region with 250 delivery staff and more than 100 electric trolleys. Picnic already opened its first robotised distribution centre in Utrecht last year, collecting 200,000 orders per week.
Websuper Picnic will open a so-called 'superhub' at the Lage Weide industrial estate in Utrecht in mid-September. From this largest hub in the Netherlands, the online supermarket will deliver groceries free of charge to over 200,000 households in the region with 250 delivery staff and more than 100 electric trolleys.
Utrecht was the fourth place in the Netherlands where Picnic launched in 2016. Customers currently get their groceries delivered from two hubs, in the north and south of the city. "Utrechters have embraced Picnic from the beginning," says co-founder Michiel Muller. "The number of households in this region where we deliver groceries to their homes for free is still growing. That growth made us look for a new location for the hubs. That resulted in one large hub in a central location, from where we can serve customers throughout Utrecht and the surrounding area."
More efficient
The new superhub has a total area of 5,500 square metres, including 2,500 square metres of indoor space. There is room for about 120 electric trolleys. Muller: "The distribution area is not being expanded at the moment, but the new hub does offer opportunities to start delivering to more places in the Utrecht region in the future. The space and facilities for this are in place." Besides Utrecht, Picnic also delivers groceries free of charge to your home in Breukelen, Harmelen and Maarssen.
The new hub in Utrecht is located at Fermiweg 10, close to the robotised distribution centre that opened last year. "Because the new superhub is located a stone's throw from our fully automated fulfilment centre, we can deliver groceries even more efficiently and better," states Muller. "The building has been completely refurbished in good cooperation with the municipality of Utrecht and our building partners. It meets all our requirements. Besides the benefits for our customers, with the arrival of the new hub we are also creating an even nicer workplace for our runners. For instance, the famous playroom will have a nice place in the hub."
Milkman rounds
The compact electric trolleys Picnic uses to deliver are environmentally friendly, quiet and out of the way. Muller: "By having the groceries delivered to their homes for free via smart milkman rounds, customers save a lot of time and, in addition, they also emit less CO2 by no longer driving to the supermarket by car." Picnic also eliminates food waste because it only buys groceries that were actually ordered by customers. Picnic now delivers groceries to over one million households at home for free, spread over more than 170 locations in the Netherlands.
