(Marchtrenk, July 13, 2022) The Dutch online supermarket Picnic trusts the expertise and experience of warehouse automation specialist TGW once more. In the German town of Oberhausen, a powerful fulfillment center will be built by summer 2024, securing Picnic's future growth and position in the German market. Both companies are linked by a close collaboration: only months ago, their first jointly planned and implemented project, a logistics center in Utrecht, Netherlands, celebrated its go-live.

Picnic was launched in 2015 and has evolved into one of the leading European e-grocery suppliers within just a few years. The growing online supermarket with superior customer service is currently active in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Orders can be placed using an intuitive app and groceries are delivered using eco-friendly electric vehicles. If you order before 10 PM, fresh, chilled, and frozen groceries will be delivered right to your door the next day. Abiding to their so-called "milkman principle", deliveries are on time and free.

THREE TEMPERATURE ZONES ENSURE HIGHEST PRODUCT QUALITY

In an effort to grow its market share in Germany, Picnic is building a highly automated fulfillment center in the heart of the Ruhr area. TGW's plans include FlashPick®, a powerful, reliable, and extremely flexible goods-to-person system that enables excellent customer service at a high level of operational efficiency. A shuttle warehouse with 40 aisles will be at the heart of the system, storing grocery and non-grocery items at three different temperatures: 68, 39, and -13 degrees Fahrenheit.

PICKING OPERATIONS FLEXIBLE TO PRODUCT VOLUME

Customer orders will either start at one of more than 60 PickCenter One workstations or in a zone-picking area that houses large volume products and fast-moving items. The orders are then consolidated via conveyor into an automated buffer.

Shortly before the delivery trucks leave the warehouse for their local distribution points, items will be retrieved towards a robot-assisted system developed by TGW, which will automatically load customer order totes into transport roll carts – a significant efficiency gain for Picnic.

Thanks to the great performance of the FlashPick® system and Picnic’s algorithms, the number of orders that can be processed per hour will be best in class. "The project in Oberhausen is another milestone and marks the next level of our cooperation with Picnic. Their renewed proof of trust is a great acknowledgement of our close collaboration,” Hans De Sutter, Managing Director TGW Benelux, is pleased to say.

Frederik Nieuwenhuys, co-founder of Picnic adds: “TGW has been a great partner in co-creating this best-in-class facility. The combination of the Picnic tech team and the TGW technology shows that we can lead the industry to provide even better service to our clients.

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