Flipkart opens new grocery fulfilment centre in Coimbatore, strengthens logistics capacity in South India

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 1, 2021

E-commerce giant Flipkart has opened its first grocery fulfilment centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to meet growing demand for online fast-moving consumer goods in the region. 

Flipkart’s new 1.2 lakh square-foot grocery fulfilment centre in Coimbatore will boost the business’ logistics capacity in South India and will create direct employment for close to 1,200 people, ET Bureau reported. In order to ameliorate its employment offering, the facility houses a crèche for childcare, will focus on workplace policies which support women, and will pay employees’ transport costs among other initiatives. 
 
“In the initial stages, only a part of the facility will be utilised for which over 500 people will be hired,” said Flipkart in a statement.

“It will be the only facility for Flipkart which will be almost entirely run by women constituting 90% of the overall workforce.”
 
The dedicated grocery fulfilment facility is the business’ second in the state of Tamil Nadu following its first in Chennai. Flipkart has a total of eight general fulfilment centres in Tamil Nadu totalling 1.5 million square feet of logistics space with close to 150 delivery hubs.
 
“Customer consumption patterns have greatly evolved over the years with the pandemic accelerating this shift towards organised channels of sourcing essentials, especially e-commerce,” said Flipkart Grocery vice president Smrithi Ravichandran, the Economic Times reported.

“As a homegrown e- commerce marketplace, Flipkart has leveraged its partnership on-ground and is working with its marketplace sellers, MSMEs and brand partners, to ensure timely availability of essential products for consumers.”