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LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado
plans to open its first mini robotic warehouse, or
customer fulfilment centre (CFC), in Bristol, western England,
it said on Thursday.
While Ocado's retail business holds only a 1.4% share of
Britain's grocery market, its warehouse technology has powered
the group's 8.1 billion pound ($10.4 billion) stock market
valuation.
The new facility, which is being built in an existing
150,000 square feet warehouse, will be Ocado's sixth CFC and is
expected to go live at the end of 2020 or early 2021. It will
support around 815 jobs in the local area.
The mini CFC will have the capacity for over 30,000 orders
per week compared to approximately 85,000 orders per week
expected from Ocado CFC 5, currently under construction at
Purfleet, east of London.
Despite its smaller size, Ocado expects the Bristol site to
achieve productivity close to that of its standard facilities.
Ocado said that in the future, mini-sized CFCs can
complement its standard-sized ones to build a fulfilment network
including in areas not suitable for larger CFCs.
($1 = 0.7794 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
Ocado (OCDO)