Picnic has won the Dutch Logistics Award 2022, receiving official recognition for its innovative logistical approach. The award is the crowning glory for the online supermarket's logistics strategy, which has caused a stir in the industry since 2015, according to trade magazine Warehouse Totaal.
The largest online supermarket in the Netherlands has accomplished an impressively rapid transformation. After starting in Amersfoort in 2015, it took Picnic only eight years to achieve a revenue of 1 billion euros, near-national coverage, and eight distribution centres within the Netherlands alone, of which the fully automated distribution centre in business park Lage Weide in Utrecht is by far the most costly and prestigious. The next fully automated distribution centre will be in Ridderkerk and a third is in the works in Zwolle.
International expansion
Picnic is already looking beyond the borders: the company has been active in Germany for several years as well. Two distribution centres were built near Düsseldorf in 2020-2021 and the company's largest automated fulfilment centre is under construction in Oberhausen. German consumers will soon be able to buy all their groceries online through the Dutch e-commerce supermarket, because Picnic has massive expansion plans in terms of its warehousing and coverage area.
Picnic is also looking to expand to France, where the company has been active since 2021 and a new distribution centre employing 500 people and spanning 15,000 square metres was recently added in Fretin, near Lille. Lille already has two delivery hubs and a third is planned in Douai, some 40 kilometres south of Lille. This hub will initially serve the western suburbs – starting next summer, the entire city area of Lille will be covered.