Ocado and Kroger have announced the continued expansion of their partnership with plans to construct three new Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFC) in the US.

The robotic warehouses will be located the Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest and West regions - with exact locations not yet announced.

The new facility in the West of the US will measure 300,000 square feet, the new facility in the Pacific Northwest will measure 200,000 square feet, and the facility in the Great Lakes region will measure 150,000 square feet.

When operational, the facilities will collectively create more than 1,000 new jobs, with the potential for hundreds of additional career opportunities.

"Kroger and Ocado are building an ecommerce ecosystem across the U. that will deliver unrivalled online experiences to more customers, in more ways and in more markets," said Luke Jensen, chief executive of Ocado Solutions. "Spanning a range of automated CFC sizes, these three new sites will be key parts of this growing and flexible fulfilment network."

Separately, online electricals retailer AO has opened a new distribution warehouse in Crewe - its third in the town - to meet increased demand.

A statement explained that as well as enabling inbound retail sales, this latest warehouse will also help AO to grow its third-party logistics business, which has seen meaningful increased demand due to new clients including Aldi, The Cotswold Company, Simba and Keter.

David Ashwell, managing director of AO Logistics, said: “During the COVID-19 pandemic our amazing team has been delivering safely and efficiently, providing a lifeline for AO.com’s customers which in turn, third party clients have benefitted from.

"As five years of channel shift from stores to online condensed into five weeks, I’m really proud of how the team has adapted to necessary changes without missing a single day of delivery with record net promoter scores over the last three months.”

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