The first Grocery Fulfilment Centre to help consumers’ needs in Lucknow, Kanpur & Allahabad
Lucknow, NFAPost: Flipkart opened its first grocery fulfilment centre in Lucknow on Monday and the inauguration was done by the Industries Minister Shri Satish Mahana virtually.
India’s homegrown ecommerce marketplace Flipkart’s decision to open the new fulfilment centre comes at a time when it is expanding its operation in the state of Uttar Pradesh as it seeks to offer consumers access to high-quality grocery products conveniently and quickly.
Spread across an area of nearly 50,000 square feet, the facility will support Flipkart’s ability to deliver a wide selection of grocery products to consumers in the cities of Lucknow, Kanpur and Allahabad.
Job opportunity
The new fulfilment centre will create more than 500 direct and thousands of indirect job opportunities as the company establishes its supply chain working with a host of local transport contractors, staffing vendors, security agencies, consumable suppliers and other administrative and housekeeping agencies across the state.
This new fulfilment centre will augment Flipkart’s capabilities to cater to the e-grocery needs of consumers, including first-time e-commerce users across the state. The company’s grocery operations will also give a fillip to the local food processing industry, connecting producers to lakhs of consumers.
Commenting on the inauguration of the new fulfilment centre, Uttar Pradesh Minister of Industries Satish Mahana said said Uttar Pradesh has a dynamic industrial policy to help companies tap into the vibrant business ecosystem in the state.
“We applaud Flipkart’s efforts to create business and employment opportunities for lakhs of citizens while contributing to the growth of e-commerce in the state and providing businesses access to a pan-India market. The opening of this centre is a testament to the continued faith businesses have on the potential of UP and its government to make it one of the fastest-growing states in the country,” said Uttar Pradesh Minister of Industries Satish Mahana.
Development initiative
The virtual inauguration of the FC was also presided over by Alok Tandon, IAS, Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Flipkart Group Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said ecommerce has become one of the strongest propellers of economic activity in the country with its large-scale development of state-of-the-art infrastructure.
“Flipkart has made several investments to strengthen infrastructure to support the growth of e-commerce and in turn job creation. In the state of Uttar Pradesh we have nearly 190 facilities and are delighted to inaugurate our first fulfilment centre for grocery. This will not only help in boosting farmers’ income, but also provide an opportunity to invest deeply in the local agriculture-ecosystem and work with tens of thousands of small farmers and FPOs to bring them into the formal retail ecosystem,” said Flipkart Group Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar.
Flipkart Group Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar also expressed his sincere thanks for the support of the state government as the company expand its operations and continue to meaningfully address the needs of customers and contribute to the state economy.
Doorstep delivery
Flipkart Grocery is committed to delivering groceries to customer’s doorstep safely and is expanding to more cities. Currently, Flipkart grocery services are live in key cities of the state, namely Agra, Aligarh, Meerut & Mathura. With the launch of this fulfilment centre, Flipkart Grocery will be able to serve customers in Lucknow and neighbouring cities such as Kanpur and Allahabad.
Commenting on the development, Flipkart Senior Vice President, Grocery, General Merchandise and Furniture Manish Kumar said grocery is one of the fastest-growing categories with the increase in demand for quality food products across the country.
“With the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating the demand for convenient and safer purchase options, an increasing number of consumers are looking to purchase groceries online. In line with this, we have established our first fulfilment centre for grocery in Uttar Pradesh to cater to the increasing demand for e-commerce services in the state,” said Flipkart Senior Vice President, Grocery, General Merchandise and Furniture Manish Kumar.
Being one of the largest states in the country, Flipkart Senior Vice President, Grocery, General Merchandise and Furniture Manish Kumar said Uttar Pradesh is also a significant demand driver for e-commerce and we expect strong demand and adoption of e-grocery services from consumers across the state.
Kirana programme
Flipkart has nearly 190 facilities across grocery, large and non-large products in Uttar Pradesh employing lakhs of people. In addition, nearly 6,000 kiranas are part of the company’s kirana programme making last-mile delivery of products.
The company has a large network of over 18,000 sellers from across the state on its platform, making available a wide selection of products to lakhs of customers across the country. Flipkart continues to strengthen its collaboration with the UP government with recent partnerships such as the One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme and Uttar Pradesh Khadi and Village Industries Board to benefit weavers and artisans by introducing their khadi fabrics, village industry products and specialized products from UP on to the e-commerce platform.
The Flipkart Group is one of India’s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, and PhonePe. Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of consumers, sellers, merchants, and small businesses to be a part of India’s e-commerce revolution, with a registered customer base of over 250 million, offering over 150 million products across 80+ categories.
The company’s efforts to democratize e-commerce in India, drive access and affordability, delight customers, create lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem and empower generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs has inspired us to innovate on many industry firsts.
