UNITED KINGDOM - Staying at the front of the pack is the name of the game in this biz, and perhaps none know this as well as Kroger. As the retailer continues to battle with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart, it has formed solid partnerships along the way. One such partnership is UK-based online grocer Ocado, whose Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFCs) are already making their way across the pond.

PCMag had the opportunity to visit one of these centers in the United Kingdom, during which it spoke to Ocado’s Chief Technical Officer, Paul Clarke, who shared some insight into Ocado's tech and how it helps grocers.

“At Ocado Technology, we're now putting some of the world's largest grocery retailers online using the cloud, robotics, AI, and IoT with our Ocado Smart Platform,” Paul Clarke shared with PCMag. “We've now become a managed services business—SaaS—but with hardware/RaaS (robotics as a service) bundled in. The grocery partner tells us the dimensions of a brownfield site/warehouse. We simulate what it would take to run their online grocery business from there."

He continued, stating that, "then we provide everything from robotics to supply chain forecasting, real-time warehouse control systems, telemetry for the delivery van fleets, simulation, and big data. We've signed deals with companies in the UK, Spain, France, Canada, Sweden—and now Kroger in the US. Our stock price doubled overnight when we announced the partnership with Kroger.”

As we’ve previously reported, Kroger and UK-based online grocer Ocado have announced plans to build those CFCs here in the United States, a surefire way to boost Kroger’s delivery business. These centers may have as many as 3,500 robots picking and packing online deliveries, if PCMag’s inside look at a center in Erith is anything to go by.

To read the interview in its entirety, please click here.

Will Ocado’s tech edge Kroger to the top of the e-commerce list? AndNowUKnow will continue to report.

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