Kroger is all in on growing home delivery

Coming this spring: the future of home delivery of groceries by Kroger.

Kroger announced Wednesday that the first of 20 customer fulfillment centers planned nationwide will begin delivering groceries from Monroe, a suburb of Cincinnati, offering shoppers what it promises will be a more reliable and ultimately less expensive service.

Kroger hopes the facility will upgrade customers’ experience and power further digital sales.

“It’s another piece – a critical piece – to serving our customers anywhere they want, whenever they want,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen told The Enquirer.

A giant concrete box, Kroger’s new facility is powered by robots and is set up to process thousands of digital orders within a 90-mile radius — as far away as Dayton, Ohio; Columbus; Indianapolis; and Louisville, Kentucky.

The company said the $55 million facility will be a “hub” to “spoke” operations.

It’s all part of a plan — first announced in 2018 — to build with U.K.based Ocado a network of robotic warehouses for to grow home delivery.

Kroger plans to open similar facilities in Atlanta; Dallas; Frederick, Maryland; Groveland, Florida; Phoenix; Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin; and Romulus, Michigan. It is also eyeing locations in the Pacific Northwest and Western states. As the network expands, Kroger will announce additional locations.

Early this year, Kroger revealed its digital shopping business more than doubled in 2020 to $10 billion, making the company as big an eCommerce player as eBay.

Kroger has promised to double that by the end of 2023.