Walmart China plans to increase investment in its supply-chain logistics by about US$1.2 billion, building or upgrading more than 10 logistics distribution centres over the next 10 to 20 years.
In March, Walmart completed its first customised perishable-food distribution centre, the South China Fresh Food Distribution Center, serving more than 100 stores in Guangdong and Guangxi, with daily distributing capacity of up to 165,000 cases of products. That centre cost RMB 700 million (US$101.6 million) to complete.
This is Walmart China’s first distribution centre specially designed and built according to leading international standards – it was the first facility in Mainland China to pass the Brand Reputation through Compliance (BRCGS) Warehousing and Distribution Global Standard Certification. At 33,700sqm, it is the largest, multi-temperature perishable distribution centre in the domestic retail industry, capable of storing and processing more than 4000 kinds of temperature-regulated, refrigerated or frozen goods simultaneously.
Ryan McDaniel, senior VP of Walmart China Supply Chain, says opening the South China Fresh Food Distribution Center increased the cold-chain storage area serving Guangdong and Guangxi to meet the ever-growing customer demand for fresh goods.
Other innovations include a scattered-sorting solution that provides the flexible distribution needed by community stores, and streamlining processes to reduce inventory during trial operations, saving about 50 per cent of space and improving efficiency by nearly 300 per cent.
The new centre is configured with advanced temperature-control hardware. The cold storage in the reservoir area is designed to control temperature variables in the receiving and delivery area by using a combination of highly sealed doors, and saves more than 330,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
In the transportation stage of the cold chain, Walmart requires that goods be cooled before they are loaded into temperature-regulated trucks. The pre-cooling temperature is then checked by a “transportation monitoring system” and the container is only loaded once the temperature meets the set level. All shipping vehicles that serve Walmart have devices onboard that monitor the temperature in the vehicle along the delivery route to ensure that the fresh produce is protected and arrives at the store on time.
Walmart says it also allocates quality inspection personnel at the distribution centre to increase compliance and safeguard the quality and safety of food products. A quality testing laboratory has been set up in the distribution centre to conduct front-line inspections on issues like food legal and regulatory compliance and agricultural pesticide residues. The data from these tests is shared with all stores nationwide.
Last year, Walmart China’s dry warehouses and fresh-food distribution centres dispatched more than 300,000 vehicles to its stores, chalking up more than 80 million kilometres of driving distance and delivering more than 1 million boxes of goods per day.
