Hudson’s Bay Company found a new innovative way to propel HBC’s Scarborough Distribution Center with the unveiling of a new state-of-the-art robotic fulfillment system. The updated distribution center is the only one in Canada, and is the home to the most advanced automated distribution technology in the retail sector. These new changes will put this distribution center in a position to provide seamless experience for customers and further support Hudson’s Bay’s all-channel retail capabilities.
According to Business Wire, features of the new system include 16 200-foot long aisles which utilize the entire vertical height of the building and can hold more than one million units of inventory and process roughly 4,200 customer orders per hour; two custom-built document handling robots to automate the insertion of packing lists; and a fleet of approximately 300 autonomous robotic delivery vehicles—iBOTs—to move inventory for storing and shipping.
The investment cost HBC $60 million, but has left them with best-in-class technology that works 12 to 15 times faster than the traditional manual process.
“Our customers will benefit from the country’s fastest order shipping system,” said Jerry Storch, HBC’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are proud to be the first to bring this industry-leading technology to Canada, in time for the busy holiday season. This investment in our Scarborough Distribution Center creates an e-commerce technology hub and allows us to expand our e-commerce business, which is a key component to our all-channel strategy.”
