SILAO, GTO.- With an investment of more than 500 million dollars (mdd), the new distribution center (cedis) of Walmart of Mexico and Central America (Walmex) in this city in the Mexican Bajío region will have a social focus and will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate and streamline its processes, which will put this building in line with the best logistics chains in the world, according to executives of the largest supermarket chain.
Gastón Wainstein, senior vice president of Real Estate Development and Supply Chain at Walmart of Mexico and Central America, said that the new facility will use the same technological resources as the distribution centers in the United States.
“We are bringing the same robotics company with the same technology that the United States is implementing right now; we are on par with what is happening in the best logistics chains in the world,” he stressed in an interview with T21.
During the laying of the first stone of this cedis, Wainstein added that the facility will be fully automated , from the entry to the exit of products, “from the time the supplier arrives until they are delivered to the stores.”
In this regard, he explained that there will be a palletizing reception system. “ We open the pallet and there the robots place the merchandise that comes on the pallets in different places in an intelligent manner and assemble the orders for each of the more than 600 stores that we are going to distribute from here,” he specified.
The cedis is expected to begin operating at the end of 2027 and plans to move up to one million boxes per day.
Regarding the investment of more than 500 million dollars, Wainstein said that this is probably the largest outlay that Walmart has made , due to the levels of automation that the new facility in Guanajuato will have.
He said that they chose Silao because of the strategic position of the municipality and in order to take advantage of the logistics potential of the region.
“There are logistical and investment-encouraging conditions that we believe are the right ones to be able to make a very long-term decision, because $500 million is not something that you can just make a mistake and take next week, this is an investment that is here to stay, it is an investment in the real economy; we believe that there are geographical, logistical and business conditions to be able to move forward,” he emphasized in an interview.
Social benefit of the new cedis
The event highlighted the social benefits of this new construction of Walmart of Mexico and Central America, one of which is that it will generate more than a thousand direct jobs , in addition to serving more than 600 stores in Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Jalisco.
Javier Treviño, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Walmart of Mexico and Central America, emphasized that their purpose is to help people save and live better, something they have achieved over the course of 29 years, since they began operations in Guanajuato.
He added that they also seek to be a regenerative company by 2040 , which is why they implement sustainable actions in their processes.
Meanwhile, Carlos García, mayor of Silao, highlighted Walmart’s social responsibility, with the job creation that this new distribution center will bring.
In turn, Ignacio Caride, CEO and general director of Walmart of Mexico and Central America, highlighted that the retail firm’s growth plan is solid in the region and what they seek is to gain in discounts with a focus on low prices.
Gastón Wainstein said that Walmart’s social responsibility goes hand in hand with its workforce. “Today, 55% of our workforce are women , almost 5% of our workforce are people with disabilities, we have almost nine thousand people working in the company, we support all causes that have to do with diversity, with inclusion, with our way of fostering belonging,” he said.
During her participation, Libia Dennise García, governor of Guanajuato, highlighted Walmart’s investment in Silao, and said that this is what is sought, that there is more investment in the entity and that the companies that do so help with social development and promote the well-being of families.
The new facility will be one of the most advanced in Latin America and will join the network of 21 distribution centers that Walmart operates in Mexico and 11 in Central America.
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