Nestlé USA has opened a 700,000-square-foot automated distribution center in Arvin, California. The company says it includes the largest automated storage and retrieval system in its global network. The project shows why CPG operators are increasingly building automation into new facilities instead of retrofitting existing ones.
How it works: Automation runs across the entire floor, including ASRS crane aisles, laser-guided vehicles, and layer-picking robotics, a spokesperson told Supply Chain Dive. The site cost more than $330 million, began operating this year, employs 110-plus workers, and ships shelf-stable brands including Toll House, Coffee mate, and Gerber using 100% renewable power.
The key decision was designing automation into the facility from day one. The Arvin site and a Glendale, Arizona facility “represent the first new builds where these capabilities were intentionally designed into the operations from the ground up,” the spokesperson said. Glendale, a $675 million combined factory and DC, opened in 2025 as the first.
The cost math: Crane-aisle ASRS works best at high volumes and depends on stable SKUs because the racking and crane paths are fixed. That matches Nestlé’s dedicated, high-volume shelf-stable assortment. A constantly shifting perishable mix would break the model. With an asset life of around 20 years, the build locks those automation assumptions in for two decades. That means the SKU profile has to be decided before construction begins.
The pattern: Nestlé is the latest big CPG company to build a greenfield automated DC.
Kraft Heinz built a more than $400 million, 775,000 sq ft site in DeKalb, Illinois that moves over 60% of its North American dry goods through automated facilities
Kimberly-Clark is building a new automated DC in Beech Island, South Carolina, as part of a $2 billion-plus US expansion due online in 2027 or 2028
Kroger is the cautionary case. It built greenfield automated grocery fulfillment centers with Ocado, then closed them and recorded about $2.6 billion in costs
The difference is the cargo: Nestlé's cranes shuttle pallets of stable, shelf-stable SKUs. Kroger’s robots had to pick thousands of perishable items to order, which probed a difficult match for fixed automation when online grocery volumes fell short. Walmart, by contrast, is retrofitting automation into many of its existing buildings.
