Flipkart partners Adani to build warehouse

BENGALURU: Walmart-backed Flipkart has entered into a strategic partnership with Adani Group to set up a new logistics hub and a data centre in Mumbai and Chennai, respectively, in order to strengthen its supply chain infrastructure.

“Adani Logistics Limited will construct a massive 534,000 sq. ft. fulfilment centre in its upcoming logistics hub in Mumbai that will be leased to Flipkart to address the growing demand for e-commerce in Western India and support market access of several thousands of sellers and MSMEs in the region,” Flipkart said in a statement. The fulfillment centre is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2022 and will have the capacity to house 10 million units of sellers’ inventory at any point. The warehouse is likely to be larger than the ones operated by Amazon so far.

“Our logistics network and technology stack are instrumental in making this a reality. These investments will help us strengthen our presence and capabilities in India to support MSMEs and sellers while also accelerating job creation and growth,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

As part of the partnership, the company said it aims to create about 2,500 direct and indirect jobs across both the facilities.The e-tailer added it is also developing its third data centre at the AdaniConnecX facility in Chennai as a part of one of the largest private cloud deployments in the country to help keep its data within India.“We see this as a great opportunity to serve Flipkart’s physical as well as digital infrastructure needs,” said Karan Adani, CEO, Adani Ports.

The tie-up also marks the entry of billionaire Gautam Adani in the online shopping space, which is currently dominated by Amazon, Flipkart. The e-commerce battle has further intensified with Reliance Industries, being the latest major entrant, scaling up capabilities to disrupt the space at a time when the e-tailing industry is at an inflection point triggered by the pandemic.