JSE-listed supermarket retail group Shoprite this week held a media tour of its Riverfields distribution centre, in Kempton Park, Gauteng, which is one of two new campuses built over the past 18 months.

This follows the group’s opening of 283 new stores in 2024, with plans to open 122 more before the end of June.

The 94 000 m² distribution centre served 510 stores in the company's greater North distribution area, which included Gauteng and large parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Free State, said Shoprite chief supply chain officer Andrew Havinga on June 10.

The company's continued growth and expansion was predicated on three things related to the supply chain, including a supply chain that could sustain its growth, a supply chain that was agile and flexible to meet the needs of the business and a supply chain that could reach stores the company had not previously been able to supply directly, he said.

The distribution centre, which is only about half the size of its largest, has eight levels on which items are packed and picked from, standing at 12.7 m for the top level and with 65 000 pallet positions.

The centre handles more than 16 000 separate retail items, including about 700 items of fruit and vegetables, some of which are locally sourced, for which it has testing, storage and ripening facilities.

The distribution centre employed more than 1 700 people, who used a hands-free, audio cue system, which was also voice-activated when they confirmed the bin location and their pick of stock, Havinga pointed out.

Further, the distribution centre can handle up to 220 trucks on site at any time and features advanced systems, including real-time tracking, predictive analytics and high-efficiency sortation.

The automated sortation system was combined with real-time dashboards, tracking and planning tools to ensure efficient stock management, especially also in readiness for peak periods such as for its sales promotions, which led to a marked spike in demand, he said.

In terms of recycling, the facility has baling machines to bale cardboard and plastic packaging, which are sent to recyclers or used by Shoprite's suppliers to make its plastic shopping bags. This diverts more than 800 t of waste a month from landfills from Riverfields.

It also used the excess heat from its refrigeration system, which kept its cold storage 'chocolate box' section below 16 °C, to heat the water that it then used to wash the tote bins after they returned from delivery to stores, said Havinga.

The distribution centre achieved an Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies level 2 certification.

The facility has washing bays to clean the trucks, with the water used, cleaned and reused. It also has a smart monitoring system that tracks water use and detects leaks in real-time, as well as backup water storage, rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse.

The distribution centre also has a minor maintenance facility, with its Centurion facility undertaking the major overhauls and repairs of its vehicles. It uses dispensing systems to control oil dispensing and used oil is recycled.

Across the group, Shoprite has more than 1 100 trucks and more than 1 500 truck trailers in operation, of which more than 1 400 trailers are fitted with solar PV panels.

Additionally, 50% of the trucks in the fleet are Euro 5-compliant low-emission trucks. Its fleet of trucks covers more than 100-million kilometres each year.

“A centralised supply chain network affords us competitive advantages in terms of being able to bring the most affordable goods to our stores. We operate and control our supply chain end-to-end, including managing our facilities and fleet, which allows us to be as lean and efficient as possible from a service and cost perspective,” he said.