Fresh meat, crisp vegetables, a wide range of food products, detergents and other everyday essentials: consumers take fully stocked supermarket shelves for granted. Yet behind it lies a highly complex logistics operation that most consumers rarely consider. For retailers however, ensuring a reliable supply chain is core business, making sure the right products reach the right place at the right time.

Professor Koen Mommens, team leader within the House of Sustainable Transitions at VUB, believes the main challenge in making logistics more sustainable lies in optimising existing transport flows: "Studies show that the average load factor ranges between 30% and 50%. This means a large share of trucks are either underutilised or travelling empty, resulting in a far too much air being transported. Increasing the efficiency of every transport movement therefore remains the first priority.”

Complex though it may be, it can be done. "There are clear differences between retailers. Our research, based on industry surveys, shows that Colruyt Group performs exceptionally well in terms of transport efficiency. It can be regarded as a benchmark for the sector," says Mommens.

This extensive digitalisation and integration has enabled the company to achieve an average truck load factor of more than 90% at departure. "We operate large central warehouses by product category: fresh products, frozen products, fast-moving consumer goods (such as soft drinks and crisps) and slow(er)-moving products (such as cookware). These warehouses are centrally located in Belgium, in Halle, Lot, Ollignies and Ghislenghien. By intelligently consolidating products from different distribution centres into a single load, we avoid sending several half-empty trucks to the same destination," says Rouquart.

The impact of these efforts extends far beyond logistics operations. Logistic cost have a direct impact on retail prices: for fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy, they can account for as much as 20% of the final price. "By organising distribution and transport in Belgium in a smarter and more sustainable way, we reduce our CO₂ emissions and achieve efficiency gains. This is how we help keep customers' shopping baskets affordable."

To make all this possible, Colruyt Group's 4,000 logistics employees are increasingly supported by technological solutions. Examples include autonomous vehicles for pallet handling or AI applications. Lieselot Rouquart: "AI is not there to replace employees, but to help us make better decisions. Algorithms help us assess the impact of weather conditions on sales and enable us to organise goods flows within our distribution centres more efficiently and safely.”

Colruyt Group has a long-standing tradition of developing such innovations in-house. These developments have also attracted international interest. Last summer, Smart Innovation, the innovation lab behind the advanced software used in autonomous forklift trucks, was spun off into a joint venture with the German company KION.  The Belgian retailer has retained a 30% stake in the venture. 

The most significant change in the years ahead will likely take place in transport.  Retailers and logistics providers are actively preparing to replace diesel-powered vehicles with zero-emission alternatives According to Professor Koen Mommens, the transition is gaining momentum: “Three factors are driving this momentum: cost, confidence in charging infrastructure, and a shift in mindset among planners and drivers. Higher diesel prices resulting from geopolitical developments and the ETS2 carbon pricing scheme that will come into force from 2028 (Emissions Trading System, the EU system that makes major polluters pay for their emissions, ed.), combined with a broader range of electric trucks entering the market, are clearly helping to change perceptions.”

However, for the time being, electric trucks remain more expensive to purchase than their diesel counterparts. "For the retail sector, we expect electric trucks to reach total cost parity with diesel vehicles by 2029-2030," he says. "However, sufficient truc-specific charging infrastructure will need to be in place for the transition to succeed."