Walmart Canada to Invest $3.5 Billion in Canadian operations
July 20, 2020Cornwall Ontario – Walmart Canada has announced a major $3.5 billion investment in its operations over the next five years. The investment, which includes modernizing stores as well as the company’s distribution centre in Cornwall, aims to generate significant growth and to make the online and in-store shopping experience simpler, faster and more convenient for Walmart’s customers.
“Millions of customers choose to shop with us in-store and online every day – and that’s a tremendous honour,” said Horacio Barbeito, President and CEO, Walmart Canada. “Today’s significant investment will position us for future growth and make Walmart Canada even better for our associates and our customers. We are doubling down on our focus on the customer experience – not just to keep up but to lead and to be the very best in Canada.”
The investment will impact every aspect of the business leading to a faster e-commerce experience, two new distribution centres to speed up the flow of products, re-invented and “smarter” stores, an enhanced omni experience and modern digital tools to ensure associates can best serve customers.
As Walmart Canada’s business grows – especially with grocery and e-commerce picking up significant momentum – Walmart will not compromise on offering the everyday low prices customers trust – both online and in-store.
The investment will also create hundreds of Canadian construction jobs and forge new partnerships with Canadian technology companies.
Walmart will be renovating, reinventing and modernizing over 150 stores over the next three years – over one-third of the store network. The planned new investments are in addition to over $1 billion invested into remodeling and opening stores over the past five years. Efforts to create “smarter stores” include electronic shelf labels, shelf scanners to monitor product volumes, robotics and computer vision cameras to simplify, minimize touches and maximize efficiency and accuracy. A new checkout experience will reduce touchpoints, including tap-to-pay, new bigger self-checkout and “Check Out With Me” mobile payment technology to allow associates to checkout customers anywhere in the store.
Other efforts include expanding the full “Walmart Pickup” offering to approximately 270 stores – or 70% of locations – by end of 2020 as well as piloting “hybrid locations” – supercentres with “micro fulfilment centres” in their backroom to increase the speed of fulfilment for pickup and delivery. New technology will accelerate the pickup experience as well as improve fulfilment centre operations to increase speed and trackability.
Walmart is also investing $1.1B to build two new distribution centres and renovate its existing distribution centre in Cornwall. New automated systems are slated to go live in Cornwall in early 2021 to manage apparel, health and beauty, and other small general merchandise items. The systems will feature machine learning, Cobot Technology which can work in concert with associates to improve the accuracy and efficiency of operations. New distributions centres will also be built in Vaughan Ontario and Surrey BC. :
Walmart is also ramping up capacity in its distribution centre system through new leading-edge technologies:
- New next generation warehouse management systems which are omni capable in meeting the future needs of both physical stores and e-commerce
- Investing in telematics and “internet of things” sensors across over 2,200 trailers to give real-time information around the quality and freshness of its deliveries
- Launching world-leading artificial intelligence software in partnership with o9 to more accurately predict and better plan volume to ensure Walmart’s customers get
what they want, when they want - Scaling the blockchain transportation payments platform with Toronto based DLT Labs – the world’s biggest blockchain solution for transportation payments system
- Using new machine learning training software to support improved training and safety on the front lines of our distribution centre and fleet operations with Axonify, a Waterloo based micro-frontline learning company.
“The retail business is as dynamic as ever and this investment ensures we’re developing a supply chain that is the envy of the world. The better the supply chain, the quicker our customers can get the products they want. This investment will transform our supply chain and create hundreds of Canadian construction jobs along the way,” said John Bayliss, Senior Vice President, Logistics and Supply Chain, Walmart Canada.
About the Cornwall Distribution Hub
Walmart Canada’s award-winning Cornwall Distribution Hub supplies Walmart stores throughout Eastern Canada with quality merchandise including grocery products. The Hub is located in two separate buildings in the Cornwall Business Park, which is also home to the Walmart fleet operations. Each building measures approximately 1.5 million sq.ft. and is supported by a vibrant business community that includes transportation companies and third-party logistics providers.
Jobs with Walmart in Cornwall can be found on the Choose Cornwall Job Board.
About Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada operates a chain of more than 400 stores nationwide serving more than 1.2 million customers each day. Walmart Canada’s flagship online store, Walmart.ca is visited by more than 900,000 customers daily. With more than 90,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada’s largest employers and is ranked one of the country’s top 10 most influential brands. Walmart Canada’s extensive philanthropy program is focused on supporting Canadian families in need, and since 1994 Walmart Canada has raised and donated more than $400 million to Canadian charities. Additional information can be found at walmartcanada.ca,