Woolworths the tech food people: Supermarket giant will use ROBOTS in a bid to get ahead of Coles in the fight to control the home delivery market
- Woolworths to test automated compact warehousing technology at its stories
- Robots have been designed in a way that they would lift products off the shelves
- They will bring products to staff for packing, speeding up the entire process
Australian supermarket giant Woolworths will use robots in a bid to get ahead of rival Coles in the home delivery market.
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said the company will first test Takeoff’s automated warehousing technology at three sites in the next 12 months before implementing it elsewhere.
Takeoff has designed robots that can lift products off the vertical shelves and bring it to staff for packing – speeding the rate the supermarket can fill its online orders.
‘Our customer expectations are changing rapidly, with more and more turning to online shopping to help them in their busy lives,’ Mr Banducci said.
‘At Woolworths, we are continuing to look for ways to enhance our customers’ online experience, especially the speed at which we make orders available to them.’
Woolworths is yet to decide on the three stores where the technology will be implemented first.
Jose Vicente Aguerrevere, co-founder and CEO of the US-based tech start-up Takeoff, said their solution provides Woolworths the perfect platform to evolve its eCommerce operations.
‘One key aspect of our tech is that it’s very quick to install, we can go live in just three months where some other players would take three years, so we’ll be leveraging that over the next 12 months,’ he told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
Woolworths’ announcement follows Coles decision to open two massive automated distribution centres in New South Wales and Queensland.
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said the company will first test Takeoff’s automated compact warehousing technology at three sites in the next 12 months before implementing it elsewhere