News Feature | December 14, 2016

Hudson's Bay Company Aims To Accelerate Fulfillment By Expanding Robotic Technology To The US

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Hudson’s Bay Company

Robotic fulfillment technology will be added to the Pottsville, Pa distribution center in 2017.

After a successful limited pilot of the technology at the company’s Canadian distribution center near Toronto, Hudson’s Bay Company has announced that it will expand its robotic fulfillment technology to the U.S., bringing it to the Pottsville, Pennsylvania distribution center in 2017. The introduction of the tech is designed to accelerate and improve the fulfillment process for Lord & Taylor and Saks Off 5th retail units, according to a recent earnings call.

Richard Baker, Governor and Executive Chairman of Hudson’s Bay Company stated, “To support our strategy, we are not only investing in consumer-facing channels, but also supply chain initiatives. We completed the installation of our world class robotic fulfillment center in Toronto and are already leveraging it to fill Hudson's Bay’s online orders. We believe that there is significant opportunity to grow digital sales in Canada and this technology will help us establish the platform we need to support that growth in a profitable manner.”

The new robotic fulfillment technology can fulfill orders 12 to 15 times faster than manual processes, allowing the company to make user of the vertical space in its distribution centers.

Gerald Storch, CEO of Hudson’s Bay Company, stated, “This improved technology will help us increased the speed of our order fulfillment, optimize utilization of space in our distribution centers and reduce expenses associated with our rapidly growing digital sales which as we mentioned grew by 12.9 percent in our legacy businesses during the third quarter.”

Ultimately, Baker asserted, “Despite the challenges we are seeing in the retail apparel environment we remain focused on executing our long-term strategy for profitable growth and are taking steps to ensure that HBC is in a position to capitalize on the many opportunities that we have.”