Logistics as the Backbone of Reinvention: Día’s Technological Leap

In a retail market marked by fierce competition, technological evolution, and the demands of consumers seeking immediacy and efficiency, logistics has ceased to be a support function to become the strategic core of survival and growth. The Día supermarket chain, with its profound transformation, embodies this reality. Its ambitious plan, backed by an investment of more than 70 million euros through 2029, is not merely a warehouse expansion; it is the complete reconnection of its operational nervous system with the era of advanced computerization and artificial intelligence applied to the supply chain.
This initiative, framed within the strategic plan “Creciendo cada día,” is based on a clear diagnosis: in today’s world, proximity to the customer is not achieved solely through stores in every neighborhood, but through an intelligent, radial logistics network that shortens distances and time. The creation of six new centers, such as those already announced in Seville, León, and Málaga, expanding surface area by 40%, pursues this goal. It aims to strategically bring stock closer to the point of sale, reducing average kilometers traveled and, with it, costs, emissions, and replenishment times—a key factor in sustaining the expansion of 300 new stores.
The core benefit for the company is twofold: extreme efficiency and resilience. The implementation of dual technologies such as put-to-light and voice-picking are not mere updates, but the foundation of a computerized supply chain where errors are minimized and productivity is maximized. Each order prepared with millimeter precision ensures shelf availability, the holy grail of retail. This process digitization is the necessary substrate for, in the near future, incorporating layers of artificial intelligence to optimize demand forecasting, dynamic routing, and automated inventory management.
Simultaneously, Día’s logistics modernization is inseparable from the sustainable transformation of transport and operations. Its new centers, designed under certifications such as BREEAM and with the “Zero Waste” goal, integrate solar panels, refrigeration chambers without polluting gases, and electric fleets. This transcends environmental commitment to become a competitive advantage: it reduces the carbon footprint and mitigates exposure to energy cost volatility, future-proofing its operations.
For the company, the ultimate benefit is the reconstruction of its value proposition. Agile, clean, and technological logistics allows it to strengthen its most important muscle: private-label brands. By controlling the flow from the central warehouse to the store with greater precision and speed, it guarantees the freshness and availability of its products, which are the heart of its low-price strategy. Thus, logistics ceases to be a cost center to become the pillar supporting profitability and the consumer proposition.
In short, Día is not just expanding warehouses; it is executing an industrial reconversion for the 21st century. It combines physical expansion with the implementation of advanced software and sustainability standards, understanding that in modern retail, the battle is won in the invisible back end of the supply chain. As its Logistics Director, Inés Vílchez, states, this is a “decisive step.” A step that seeks to ensure that the proximity model does not depend solely on store location, but on the intelligence and speed with which it is supplied.