Mercadona installs its fourth ‘beehive’ in Alicante for online sales with an investment of 14 million

The supermarket chain chaired by Juan Roig continues to expand its online business model. Mercadona will add its fourth center or ‘hive’ specifically designed to supply online orders in Alicante and expects it to start operating in mid-2022.

Mercadona has begun work on the construction of its exclusive warehouse for online purchases in Alicante, which will add to those already underway in Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid. The ‘beehive’, as the company internally calls the stores for online service, will be located on the Ocaña highway, behind Mercalicante, and plans an investment of more than 14 million euros.

During the construction phase, 25 suppliers will participate, employing 150 people. The ship will occupy 10,000 square meters on a plot of 19,000 square meters and is expected to start up in the middle of next year.

340 jobs

From this Hive, where online orders will be managed and prepared, the forecast is to offer the new service in the city of Alicante, and depending on the evolution of the project, the company plans to expand the service to other municipalities in the province. The team that will work in this new center in Alicante will be made up of approximately 340 people, including delivery men and pickers.

Mercadona’s online shopping strategy with these centers seeks to improve the experience by enabling the new shopping website and mobile application, as well as bringing important structural changes associated with it that make it possible to optimize the preparation and delivery processes. By transferring the preparation and shipping of orders to the Hive, instead of managing them one by one from the stores, the productivity and efficiency of this service is increased.

In addition, the Mercadona online vehicle fleet is made up of gas-powered vehicles that can transport up to 15 orders. These have been exclusively designed with 3 temperature zones adapted to each type of product: room temperature, refrigerated and frozen. In addition, it incorporates a mechanized unloading system that minimizes the handling of the load, with the consequent reduction of overexertion for the workers and the reduction of unloading time.