Ocado to open mini customer fulfilment centre in Bristol

Ocado's mini-CFC is expected to achieve productivity similar to the company's full-size warehouses

Ocado is planning to build a mini-customer fulfilment centre in Bristol in a facility offering less than half the capacity of its standard warehouses.

The automated warehouse will have the capacity for just over 30,000 orders per week compared to around 85,000 orders per week that the company's Purfleet customer fulfilment centre will be able to serve.

"This facility is being built in an existing warehouse and is expected to go live at the end of 2020 or early 2021, so bringing new capacity into operation significantly faster than for purpose-built standard-sized CFCs. Despite its smaller size, we expect the Bristol mini-CFC to achieve productivity close to that in our standard facilities," the company claimed in a statement.

The Ocado Smart Platform is constantly evolving as we innovate to adapt to changing customer needs

It will be Ocado's first mini-CFC. In addition to serving the area around Bristol, it will also serve as a demonstration for the company's technology arm, which sells complete ecommerce solutions - both the automated warehouses and the supply-chain software - to supermarkets around the world.

The warehouse will be able to provide same-day delivery for customers in the area. "It will also mean saving the cost of spoke sites, offsetting most of the additional costs of the supply chain," the company added.

Underscoring its value as a show-case of the company's technology prowess, CEO Tim Steiner said: "The Ocado Smart Platform is constantly evolving as we innovate to adapt to changing customer needs.

"We can now deliver the best customer experience across a whole range of customer missions, through CFCs, mini-CFCs, and micro fulfilment centres. Ocado's technology is dynamic and constantly improving, delivered through tried and tested solutions with proven and attractive economics."

That shift towards technology was reflected by the sale of a 50 per cent share of Ocado.com, the customer facing online supermarket element of the company, to Marks & Spencer. Since it was founded, Ocado has sought to use technology to cut costs, and increasingly to sell its technology to other supermarket retailers around the world.

It currently has deals with US grocer Kroger, Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys, Australia's Coles, and France's Groupe Casino. Its deals in each territory are exclusive to the supermarket chains involved, meaning that Ocado will not sign deals with their rivals.