Walmart Chile has opened a distribution center in San Bernardo that is part of a $180 million initiative meant to strengthen the company’s omnichannel strategy.
The El Peñón distribution center is the first in Walmart International to be equipped with omnichannel warehouse distribution management. In August 2018, Walmart Chile announced an investment of close to $700 million for the next three years that consists of opening 50 stores nationwide, the inauguration of 150 new pickup stations, the remodeling of 60 sales floors and the incorporation of new technologies.
Walmart International said the El Peñón distribution center plays a key role in this context as an “anchor project” for the development that the company plans in the country. At a ceremony with Chile’s economy minister Juan Andrés Fontaine and labor minister Nicolás Monckeberg, Walmart Chile CEO Horacio Barbeito highlighted the importance of the project that will create around 2,000 new jobs when fully operational.
“The El Peñón distribution center is a cornerstone of our growth plan and will impact job creation directly in the long-term–over 4,000 new work positions in the next three years,” Barbeito said. “This new DC will allow us to significantly improve our logistical capacity to quickly and efficiently supply 100 percent of our almost 400 supermarkets from Arica to Punta Arenas, while simultaneously strengthening our digital proposition, a channel we have defined as strategic and which will be one of the main engines of growth in the years to come.”
For small and medium suppliers, the new center will place a logistics network at their disposal “that will allow them to distribute their products to every corner of the country in faster and the most cost-effective ways, giving them tremendous competitive advantages,” Barbeito said.
Barbeito also recalled that the company is undergoing the biggest transformation in its history to respond more efficiently to the needs of increasingly demanding customers who want quick and personalized solutions.
“This project is fundamental to the omnichannel strategy that we are developing in the country, as it will better position us to handle the growing demand that e-commerce has created,” he added. “In this context, we’re happy that Walmart’s first omnichannel warehouse management systems DC in International, is indeed in Chile.”