One of XPDEL’s clients is a global ultrafast grocer that elevated its performance to 148% year-over-year growth in their New York network by leveraging XPDEL fulfillment network and its operational efficiencies.
In 2020, online sales for major US retailers such as Kroger, Walmart and Target nearly doubled, and one of the industry-leading grocery delivery apps increased the number of companies using its platform by 17%, according to a Forrester report. As a whole, food and beverage segment led all categories in online sales growth in 2020, more than doubling to 75% from 32% in 2019. While it is clear that online sales grew out of necessity during the pandemic, projections underscore the elevated long-term growth path that consumers now rely on for meal and grocery pickup and delivery. The ultrafast delivery industry – classified by the 10-to-15-minute-delivery shows no sign of slowing down as projections anticipate a $28 billion US market to build this on-demand food and grocery delivery industry.
One of XPDEL’s clients is a global ultrafast grocer that elevated its performance to 148% year-over-year growth in their New York network by leveraging XPDEL fulfillment network and its operational efficiencies. This global rapid-fire grocer, launched in Spring 2021 in multiple cities across Europe and other regions with a commitment to deliver orders within 15 minutes. Upon landing in the US, the company needed to solve for efficient delivery of quality food to all its locations. As the increasingly competitive market grew, the company selected XPDEL as the partner in their growth and path to improvement.
XPDEL reconfigured this specific grocer’s supply chain network design by rerouting the food distributors to deliver to XPDEL fulfillment centers (“hubs”) for consolidation and planned delivery to the grocer’s locations (”spokes”). XPDEL’s delivery fleet was used with route planning and real-time tracking. Utilizing the “hub and spoke” method, the grocer significantly improved the quality, accuracy, speed and cost of deliveries to its locations. The grocer was able to serve its customers better and expand its service coverage with more spokes.
In addition to network operations, XPDEL leveraged its advanced technology platforms to manage inventory, fulfillment and logistics. For example, the systems capture expiration dates, food lot numbers, and segregate off-quality product, ensuring higher accuracy for deliveries and operational efficiency at the distribution sites. The hub and spoke design and the route optimization reduced the logistics cost and the related carbon footprint by over 20%.
The lightning-fast delivery brand continues to grow with additional support from its investors, with expected expansion across the United States and other countries.
In another case, a similar hub and spoke solution was used to fuel a network of dark kitchens that was delivering restaurant food to consumers. XPDEL delivered the food ingredients needed by the kitchens and XPDEL’s advanced technology-enabled just in time (JIT) inventory management, implement quality control using first expired first out (FEFO), achieve near 100% on-time delivery, and reduced operating cost by over 18%.
XPDEL’s expansion to India is just one of the steps towards the global coverage it plans to provide to springboard the ultrafast food supply chains. XPDEL is in discussions with retail and eCommerce grocery chains in India to combine the global best practices with local expertise.
