- Thanks to TGW technology, up to 200,000 households in the Ruhr area can be supplied with groceries reliably and quickly.
- An innovative robot system automatically loads the transport frames with customer orders.
- Europe's largest online grocery fulfillment center sets the standard for performance and efficiency.
Press Article
TGW Logistics automates new distribution center for Picnic
(Marchtrenk, Austria, July 30th, 2025) Following their first joint project in Utrecht, the leading online supermarket Picnic has once again put its trust in the expertise and experience of TGW Logistics. A highly automated fulfillment center recently went into operation in Oberhausen, Germany, laying the foundation for Picnic's planned growth in the German market.
Founded in 2015 in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Picnic has developed into a leading European online grocery provider in just a few short years. The company is active in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Orders are placed using an intuitive app, and environmentally friendly electric vehicles make the deliveries. You can choose from an assortment of 10,000 products, and if you order by 10:00 p.m., the chilled, frozen, and ambient food will be delivered to your doorstep the next day. Thanks to the so-called "milkman principle," delivery times are accurate down to the minute.
Three temperature zones ensure highest product quality
In order to further accelerate their expansion into the German market, Picnic has established a highly automated fulfillment center in the heart of the Ruhr area. The high-performance system planned and implemented by TGW Logistics enables optimal customer service and maximum efficiency.
The core element is a shuttle warehouse where 1,500 robots move about entirely autonomously. Groceries and non-food items are stored there in three temperature areas ranging from -0.4°F to 68°F.
Robots as the system's high-performance core
Customer orders begin at one of the more than 60 ergonomic PickCenter picking workstations or in the zone-picking area (which mainly handles high-volume products or fast-moving items).
The orders are then consolidated in a buffer. Shortly before the trucks leave for the local distribution points, items are transferred to a robot-assisted system developed by TGW Logistics, which loads the customer totes into transport frames entirely automatically. Up to 33,000 customer orders can be processed per day.
"We are delighted with the successful go-live in Oberhausen! This fulfillment center is a milestone and marks the next level of collaboration between Picnic and TGW Logistics," declares Bart van Eycken, Director of Sales for Northern Europe at TGW Logistics.
Picnic co-founder Frederik Nieuwenhuys adds: "TGW Logistics is an excellent partner that made this high-end project possible together with Picnic. The combination of the Picnic tech team and TGW technology demonstrates that we can offer our customers even better service and thus set standards in the industry."
