Flexport Offering Automated Fulfillment at Former Kroger-Ocado Site

Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, unveils the 2026 Fall Technology Release:

Flexport has launched its first fully automated fulfillment center, taking over the former Kroger-Ocado customer fulfillment center in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, just north of Chicago.

The facility includes approximately 250,000 storage bins and more than 386 robots operating a goods-to-person system. Flexport says the automation doubles efficiency compared with a traditional warehouse while supporting 99.9% order accuracy.

The 336,840-square-foot building originally opened in 2022 as part of Kroger’s ambitious partnership with Ocado to develop a network of highly automated grocery fulfillment centers across the United States.

That strategy changed significantly in November 2025, when Kroger announced that it would close three of its Ocado-powered facilities in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin; Frederick, Maryland; and Groveland, Florida. Kroger said the automated fulfillment network had not met its operational or financial expectations.

The Pleasant Prairie facility closed in January 2026.

Only a few months later, Flexport received approval to move into the same building at 9091 88th Avenue and convert it into a broader warehousing, e-commerce fulfillment and distribution operation. The project is expected to create approximately 300 jobs.

The conversion has required removing infrastructure specifically designed for grocery operations, including the commercial chiller and refrigeration systems, tote-cleaning room and meat-packing areas.

What Flexport has kept is arguably the most valuable part of the facility: the automation.

The existing Ocado system is now being used to support a much broader fulfillment model rather than a dedicated grocery operation. Flexport describes the Pleasant Prairie facility as having more than 386 robots moving inventory from approximately 250,000 storage bins directly to operators.

Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen introduced the facility during the company’s September technology release, describing it as the company’s first move into robotic fulfillment centers and indicating that additional investments in warehouse robotics are expected.

For Ocado, the Pleasant Prairie site has therefore taken an unusual path.

A facility built specifically for one of the largest grocery retailers in the United States, closed less than four years after opening, is now operating again under a completely different fulfillment model — with much of the original robotic infrastructure still in place.