Walmart is committing $6 billion to expand its robotics partnership with Symbotic across 25 U.S. regional distribution centers. The agreement is intended to strengthen upstream e-commerce inventory management, increase storage capacity and improve the movement of products through the retailer’s network.
Walmart said the expanded automation program should broaden its assortment, speed up service and make replenishment more reliable. Rob Montgomery, executive vice president for Walmart U.S. supply chain operations, said the company’s physical and digital supply chain investments are designed to support shopping in stores, through curbside pickup and at home, while improving service, increasing capacity, simplifying work for associates and lowering costs.
More than half of Walmart’s e-commerce fulfillment volume is processed through automated facilities. The retailer is also retrofitting 42 regional distribution centers by 2030. Symbotic CEO Rick Cohen said in an August earnings call that the company’s BreakPack technology, which picks individual items, had begun deployment at approximately half of those locations.
The $6 billion figure represents an initial commitment for work to be carried out over several years, rather than a completed buildout or a budget assigned to each facility. Walmart has not identified the 25 centers or provided a timetable for each project. In a separate filing, Symbotic said the commitment could add up to $6.92 billion to its backlog.
Several existing sites illustrate the scale of Walmart’s modernization plans. The company is investing more than $330 million in a phased upgrade of its regional distribution center in Opelousas, Louisiana, and $350 million to modernize another site in Cullman, Alabama. Walmart said it intends to retain the workforce at the Louisiana facility while shifting roles toward automation, robotics and advanced technology. Both projects are expected to double shipping capacity after completion.
A separate Texas filing identified Walmart as the company behind a planned $400 million distribution center in Cibolo, near San Antonio. Called “Project Theo,” the 744,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to begin construction in February 2027 and be completed by August 2029. The project is expected to create at least 425 full-time jobs with wages above the median for the San Antonio metropolitan area, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Walmart has not commented on the facility. Local officials have previously said it will be operated with robots, high-tech equipment and employees managing that equipment. It remains unclear whether the site will be classified as one of Walmart’s next-generation fulfillment centers.
Walmart’s latest next-generation facility opened in Stockton, California, earlier this month, becoming the fifth of its type. The company expects that center to create more than 1,000 jobs. Other facilities in the network are located in Joliet, Illinois; McCordsville, Indiana; Lancaster, Texas; and Greencastle, Pennsylvania.
These centers use automated high-density storage and retrieval systems to pick and fulfill products for associates. Walmart has said the technology reduces a manual 12-step fulfillment process to five steps and is designed to double the number of orders processed each day.
The retailer began work on another next-generation fulfillment center in Carnesville, Georgia, with a $1.3 billion investment. The project broke ground on October 27 and is expected to create 1,000 full-time jobs. Walmart says its next-generation model can double the storage capacity of a traditional fulfillment center and hold up to twice as many unique stock-keeping units.
Together with the rest of its network, the newer facilities are expected to help Walmart reach 95 percent of the U.S. population with next-day or two-day shipping. CEO John Furner said the company’s supply chain investments are expected to peak this year and next.
Sources: WWD.