Farmstead serves up online grocery ‘warehouse in a box’

Pure-play online grocer Farmstead has teamed up with automation specialist Dematic to offer an e-grocery “warehouse in a box” solution.

In announcing the partnership this week, Burlingame, Calif.-based Farmstead said Dematic’s supply-chain solutions provide “the final component” for its end-to-end grocery e-commerce platform. The online grocer began licensing its Grocery OS technology stack to other retailers in September 2020 to provide turnkey solution for companies to get a dark-store delivery operation up and running in two to three weeks, from securing commercial real estate space to inventory sourcing to delivery service. Automation caps off the warehouse technology component for more efficient fulfillment.

“Dematic has a decades-long track record of helping retailers improve efficiency,” Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO at Farmstead, said in a statement. “We’re proud to bring Dematic, a trusted partner in automation, to the table when we’re speaking with grocers about driving operational efficiencies at scale.”

Farmstead began licensing its Grocery OS technology stack to other retailers in September 2020 to provide turnkey solution, now incorporating Dematic's automation for more efficient fulfillment.

Founded in 2016, Farmstead said it has “reinvented the grocery buying experience” and “rewired how food moves across the country” to make locally sourced food more accessible and reduce food waste. The company noted that its Grocery OS platform, which orchestrates its dark warehouses, leverages proprietary data and code to revamp perishable supply chains, cut last-mile fulfillment costs, and operate at optimum efficiency and reliability, expediting online grocery profitability in suburban markets.

Related:Farmstead makes Windy City debut

In February, Farmstead’s online grocery service launched in Chicago, the company’s fifth market. The e-tailer started off in the San Francisco Bay area and last year entered Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Miami after a late 2020 launch in Charlotte, N.C. The e-grocer said it aims to expand nationwide and serve a primarily suburban, midmarket customer base.

Farmstead focuses on one- to two-hour free delivery and serving consumers across a large radius — generally 50 miles — that the company said helps eliminate food deserts while offering better prices than local supermarkets.

“We’ve been watching as Farmstead has transformed grocery e-commerce with its in-house tech stack,” commented Matt Inbody, senior director of micro-enterprise at Atlanta-based Dematic. “We’re excited to partner with Farmstead on customer engagements so we can continue to advance our future-focused approach in providing customers with the solutions they need to drive their business forward.”

Related:Online grocer Farmstead to accept SNAP EBT transactions