E-commerce only grocery retail chain Picnic Netherlands will open another distribution center earlier than planned. This time in Zaandam. The building is directly opposite the logistics center of supermarket competitor Albert Heijn.
From the building of 20,000 square meters, Picnic wants to supply urban Noord-Holland, including Amsterdam-Noord and Zaanstad. The groceries are transported from the distribution center to local hubs where they are delivered to customers by electric carts. Previously, this was done from the distribution center in Diemen.
“We see that Diemen is no longer sufficient for Amsterdam and the surrounding area,” co-founder Michiel Muller told Het Parool. “From Zaandam we will serve a part of Amsterdam, but also Haarlem. We can also add many more customers in Zaanstad, Alkmaar and Purmerend, where we are already active. "
Old Aldi Nord Distribution Center
The new building is twice the size of the location in Diemen. Picnic alternates here with grocer Aldi, who left and sold the building on the Westerspoor business park at the end of last year. A great find, says Muller. "It was built for supermarket distribution. Before, we had to completely rebuild the DC in Diemen before it was fitting our requirements. Now for example it already contains chilled storage rooms."
Picnic expects the location to generate 500 jobs. The app-only supermarket wants to be operational there by the end of June. The opening was actually planned for the fall of 2021, but has been pushed forward by the high demand for online groceries.
The same happened before at the warehouses in Apeldoorn and Berkel en Rodenrijs. Since the corona outbreak, the number of orders at Picnic has increased considerably. By accelerating the opening of distribution centers, the online supermarket hopes to meet growing demand and take pressure off other logistics centers.
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