UK-based grocer Ocado Group and Aeon have collaborated to open their first Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Japan’s Honda-cho, Midori-ku, Chiba-city.
The first CFC in Asia began accepting orders from customers around the Kanto region under the Green Beans brand, Aeon Next’s online grocery delivery brand, launched in April. The service will provide users with a 50,000 SKU product variety at scale, as well as a Smart Cart function and one-hour delivery slots.
“We aim to marry the technology platform together with Aeon’s knowledge of customers and products to help transform the way consumers shop and change their daily living by providing a service that offers ease, reliability and a wide choice of products and solutions,” said Akio Yoshida, president of Aeon.
“The effort is a cornerstone of Aeon’s continued digital shift across the enterprise, and we will continue to collaborate with Ocado to innovate the online shopping experience.”
The second CFC of Aeon Next will be located in Hachioji, Tokyo. According to the companies, more CFCs will be added, and the capacity will be handled by a mix of different-sized facilities from the Ocado ecosystem.
UK-based group Okado provides end-to-end online grocery solutions to twelve of the world’s leading supermarket retailers and owns 50 per cent of Ocado Retail.
Aeon became a substantial shareholder in Japanese grocery chain Inageya in April, increasing its ownership to more than 50 per cent from 17 per cent at the time, making Inageya the group’s biggest subsidiary.
