Carrefour is a fast-growing multinational retail and wholesaling corporation, operating a chain of over 12,225 hypermarkets, grocery stores, and convenience stores in more than 30 countries.

Location: Le Plessis-Pâté, France
Distribution: e-Commerce home delivery and curbside pickup for stores within southern Île-de-France
Products: Ambient and chilled grocery items

Their distribution center in Le Plessis-Pâté, France houses two independently operating Skypod systems to fulfill ambient and chilled e-grocery orders that are delivered to customers’ homes as well as stores offering curbside pickup within southern Île-de-France.

Temperatures within the systems range between 32-89 degrees Fahrenheit (0-32 degrees Celcius) with more than 13,000 product references. Ambient, chilled, and manually picked orders are combined via a network of conveyors integrated by Exotec. Carrefour has gone on to install four more Skypod systems at other facilities.

Robots	Stations	Storage Bins	Bins/hour	System Height	System Footprint
148	18	30,940	2,800	8.2m (27ft)	18,290m² (196,871sq.ft)

Ambient System

Robots	Stations	Storage Bins	Bins/hour	System Height	System Footprint
78	11	12,600	1,800	5.9m (19.3ft)	1,000m² (10,763sq.ft)

Chilled System

Results

1. Boosted Customer Satisfaction

Preparation reliability increased to 99% for all orders
2-hour home delivery enabled

2. Improved Efficiencies

Utilized entire height of warehouse to increased storage density by 4X

3. Enhanced Performance

Increased throughput of more than 13,000 product references by 4X
Fulfilling up to 4,000 orders each day with consolidation of manual picking items

“The automation of our supply chain has been the answer to this positive dynamic to effectively support our growth, while improving our product offerings, our quality of service, our performance and our working conditions.”