[#92] Supply Chain in Numbers- Sep 13, 2021
Canada Drives raises CA$100M, Walmart plans a 1M sqft DC in Charlotte, Chewy plans to add three automated FCs, £2 million per acre in Milton-Keynes UK, Osaro raises $30M
Welcome to “Supply Chain in Numbers.” This newsletter tracks significant digits from the world of the supply chain. Five prominent numbers are published every Monday. If you have any feedback, please send it to me.
$100 million CAD
Canada Drives, an online car shopping, and delivery platform announced $79.4 million ($100 million CAD) in Series B funding that it will use to expand its service across Canada. Canada Drives currently operates in British Columbia and Ontario, two provinces that together comprise about half of Canada’s entire population, according to Canada’s 2016 census. With the new funds, Canada Drives hopes to expand to Alberta in the next month, according to co-CEO Cody Green. The company owns its entire inventory of vehicles. It certifies, inspects, and reconditions the used cars that come its way, stores them throughout its operating zones, and delivers them to the customer’s door when they purchase. [Pymnts]
1 million sqft
Walmart plans to build a distribution center that will bring more than 500 full-time jobs to the Charlotte region. The 1-million-square-foot fulfillment distribution center will expand Walmart’s supply chain network to help grow online sales. This “specialized high-velocity fulfillment center” will open in late September, with products shipping out to customers in mid-October, according to Walmart. [Charlotte Observer]
3 automated FCs
Chewy plans to open three automated fulfillment centers in the next 14 months to boost productivity while mitigating the effects of recent labor shortages. After the automated facilities open in Nashville, Tennessee, Reno, Nevada, and Kansas City, Missouri, Chewy will have a total of four automated facilities out of 14 FCs. Its first automated facility opened in Archbald, Pennsylvania in October 2020. Chewy is also investing in existing FCs, as some will see automation retrofits starting in 2022. [SC Dive]
£2 million per acre
Global developer and investor Trammell Crow Company has paid a record land price for a 19.4-acre site in Milton Keynes where it intends to develop a 340,000ft2 speculative warehouse scheme. The company is thought to have paid around £38 million — equivalent to £2 million per acre — for the former Arcadia distribution center on Merton Drive, which will be redeveloped. The price it paid is roughly 2x of average real estate rates in the area. [Logistics Manager]
$30 million
Logistics automation startup Osaro Inc. will scale up its robotic solutions for the hot markets of e-commerce order fulfillment, inventory induction & extraction, sortation, and singulation, thanks to a $30 million venture capital round. Osaro’s robotic automation integrates with automated sorting and retrieval systems (ASRS), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), conveyor systems, and other material handling equipment. [DC Velocity]