New Automated Warehouse Hit with Technical Hiccups

Warehouse operator Americold confirmed this week it has begun operations at a massive new distribution center in Plainville which will be used by ADUSA Supply Chain. ADUSA's parent company Ahold Delhaize owns Stop & Shop, as well as four other major chains in Hannaford, The Giant Co., Giant and Food Lion.

Last week, however, Americold executives said they do not expect the Plainville warehouse to hit full throughput until the back half of 2025, as they work to iron out unspecified technical hiccups with the automated facility and another in Lancaster, Pa. Combined, the two facilities will distribute to 750 Ahold Delhaize stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

"The work being done inside these facilities is individual, case-pick selection, which is being completed by our automation systems," said Rob Chambers, Americold president, speaking last Thursday on a conference call. "This is a high level of complexity which is taking some additional time to achieve our desired service level."

More time is needed as well to properly integrate the new warehouse into the operations of ADUSA, Chambers added, without delving into details. Americold did not offer further details to queries on the Plainville facility.

An ADUSA spokesperson responded Wednesday morning, describing the facility as still "in development" in an email.

"ADUSA Distribution uses a combination of self-distributed and third-party warehouses to serve Stop & Shop stores in the Connecticut market," stated ADUSA spokesperson Dewaters. "When appropriate, the Plainville site will be added to the distribution network, bringing increased capacity. Where needed, there will be a seamless transition of services between warehouses, and we do not expect any disruption to service levels for Stop & Shop."

Americold has reported investing $325 million in development capital across the two facilities, and that ADUSA has committed to using the warehouses for an initial term of 20 years. Americold assigned a $155 million value to the Plainville warehouse in a 2023 filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, with the state of Connecticut approving $4.5 million in tax credits associated with the project under a pair of incentive programs.

Robotic 'waterfalls'

Located a few miles north of Interstate 84, the Plainville location is the first newly constructed warehouse in New England announced by Americold since 2018. The company opened a facility that year in Middleborough, Mass., designed to flash freeze nearly 40,000 tons of cranberries at a time that end up in Ocean Spray Craisins.

The Americold building in Plainville stands 130 feet tall and spans more than 230,000 square feet, powered by fuel cells from Bloom Energy that produce electricity through a chemical process rather than drawing on the grid.

The facility has more than 30,000 pallet slots on two levels according to Primus, a Georgia company which helped design some of the sophisticated automation systems inside. Those include robotics that grab orders and steer them through "waterfall" and conveyor systems, and ultimately onto trailers for delivery to retail stores.

Dewaters did not address any specific impact on other warehouses used by Stop & Shop for perishable products, stating only that the company expects the new facility to add inventory capacity.

After ADUSA opened a modern new distribution center for non-perishable goods in Manchester in 2021, C&S Wholesale Grocers closed one in Suffield that had supplied area Stop & Shop supermarkets. While that came at a cost of 175 C&S jobs, Ahold Delhaize projected at the time that the new Manchester warehouse would support about 500 jobs.

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