American multinational retail corporation Walmart is planning to invest nearly RMB8bn ($1.2bn) to upgrade its supply chain logistics in China.
The company will use the investment to establish or upgrade more than ten logistics distribution centres over the next ten to 20 years.
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This move follows the company’s recent investment of RMB700m ($101.87m) to establish the South China Fresh Food Distribution Centre in the country.
The food distribution centre currently serves more than 100 Walmart stores in Guangdong and Guangxi. It can handle up to 165,000 cases of products per day.
Walmart China supply chain senior vice president Ryan McDaniel said: “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% of space and improving efficiency by nearly 300%.”
In order to better serve its customers, the company said it will continue to develop and apply new technology to its supply chain in order to optimise its operations.
Walmart’s supply chain leverages big data platform, Data Lake and new mobile applications to enhance data storage and analytics.
Last year, Walmart China dispatched more than 300,000 vehicles to its stores through dry warehouses and fresh food distribution centres. This resulted in an annual distribution mileage of more than 80 million km and delivery of more than one million boxes of goods per day.
