Flipkart expands warehousing capacity in West Bengal

BENGALURU: E-commerce firm Flipkart on Wednesday said it has added a new fulfilment centre (FC) in Dankuni, West Bengal, as it ramps up its supply chain infrastructure in eastern India to cater to the growing demand for e-commerce services in the region.

Spread across 2.2 lakh sq ft and with the potential to create nearly 3,500 direct jobs, the new facility will cater to the needs of both Flipkart and its fashion marketplace Myntra customers. It will also help thousands of sellers offer a wider selection and enable faster deliveries of customer orders within the region and neighbouring states.

The new FC will augment Flipkart’s capabilities to cater to more consumers, including millions of first-time e-commerce users in the east.

Over 52% of Flipkart consumers are from Tier-II and beyond cities.

With the Dankuni FC, Flipkart now has 7 FCs spread across 10 lakh sq ft of warehousing space in West Bengal, 152 delivery hubs, and employs over 50,000 people across all these facilities. For Flipkart, West Bengal has its tenth largest seller base with 10,000 sellers.

“We are strengthening our supply chain presence in West Bengal and this expansion will help support small and medium businesses from the state while creating thousands of employment opportunities. E-commerce has helped serve citizens with a safe and sanitised supply chain and we will continue to serve the ecosystem including lakhs of sellers, MSMEs, kirana partners, millions of consumers and thousands of brands that we work with,” said Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President, supply chain at Flipkart.

E-commerce majors such as Amazon India and Flipkart have been steadily ramping up their warehousing capacity as demand accelerated during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, Singapore-based Xander Group has leased around 11 lakh sq ft of warehousing space to Amazon India and Walmart-owned Flipkart in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra. E-commerce has also been a major growth driver for logistics and warehousing companies in the last year when lockdown restrictions made customers move to shop online.

“We are committed to the growth of the region and the businesses here by creating conducive policies and providing all possible support for their growth. Flipkart’s continued investment in the state is a testament to the enabling environment the state has helped create not just job opportunities but the safe way of deliveries for the consumers,” said Vandana Yadav, Secretary Industry Commerce & Enterprises, West Bengal.