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Case: Accelerating Picnic’s growth

Online supermarket Picnic is revolutionising the online grocery delivery sector in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and beyond. Since launching in 2015, the foundation of Picnic’s success has been its innovative and sustainable business model and the technology that has been developed in-house. In the launch year, online grocery delivery was nearly non-existent and only accounted for 1% of the Dutch supermarket sales. Today, Picnic has over 2500 small electric vans delivering in 120 towns, 70 delivery hubs, while the groceries are being picked in more than 15 fulfilment centers.

Picnic has developed most soft- and hardware by itself and thus created a unique supply chain with superior efficiency. Over time Picnic has improved its operations on a daily basis inclusing hardware changes to capture lessons learned. This had led to questions to Newwen if and how they could support further progress, in this case for the racks that carry the totes with the customer orders in the vans:

  • Can we design a rack suitable for automated operations in our warehouse?
  • How can we ensure strength and durability in our racks?

Coming from a different logistics partner, Picnic already had 100% aluminium racks with a V bracing but needed more stability. Together with Picnic we went through a very thorough research and development process that included FEM analysis and simulation models to predict how the racking would react to real-world forces. Newwen created steel and aluminium racks with centered weighted points at the corners to provide the same strength and endurance as a rack with a diagonal frame.

Also, the racks are stackable, ensuring efficiency in the supply chain and take up minimum space in logistics. Small and intelligent improvements for a smarter supply chain.

Newwen is a true hands-on partner, working effectively together during our research and development process. The racks are specifically designed to meet the needs of all the steps in our supply chain. Increasing the productivity of our staff, electric vehicles, hubs, and fulfilment centres with enhanced solutions for our racking system.

Michiel Muller CEO of Picnic