Southeastern Grocers (SEG) and Relocalize partnered to pilot ice manufacturing in the world’s first autonomous micro-factory, which was recognized by Real Leaders with an Impact Award for Best Collaboration. The partnership helps eliminate middle-mile logistics and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, water waste, and plastic pollution.

Southeastern Grocers is an omnichannel retailer and one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. with brands like Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets. This innovative and automated manufacturing process empowers the grocer to scale production and create waste-reduction solutions through the full lifecycle of the product.

“Our collaboration with Relocalize has allowed us to push the boundaries on what’s possible in our industry,” Dewayne Rabon, chief merchandising officer for Southeastern Grocers, tells Real Leaders. “By pioneering this revolutionary approach to ice production with the world’s first AI-powered micro-factory, we’ve enhanced the quality of our products and significantly reduced waste and carbon emissions.”

Here’s how it works: Relocalize sells automated food production platforms as a service (PaaS) to grocery and convenience retailers. These micro-factories (RELOs) are located at retailer distribution and fulfillment centers, where they produce CPG products on-demand for 100–200 retail stores. Each RELO performs all the processes of a traditional factory (e.g., production, processing, material handling, packaging, palletizing, inventory management, food safety) at about 1/20th scale. By eliminating middle-mile transportation and 100% of production labor with robotics, the retailer is supplied with fresher products at a much lower environmental and economic cost. Relocalize says its goal is to disrupt the $1+ trillion ice and beverage CPG category by hyper-localizing production to eliminate transportation CO2 and waste. 

“We set out on a mission to decarbonize food supply chains,” says Wayne McIntyre, CEO and co-founder of Relocalize. “Fully autonomous, hyper-local food manufacturing is now a reality. This ice microfactory represents a fundamental shift in how packaged food is produced and distributed, ushering in the era of the one-step food journey from production to consumption.”

Through the partnership, SEG has introduced Party Cubes, which the duo says is the world’s first hyper-local, certified plastic-negative, packaged ice produced on-demand. The partners say this super-premium cubed ice stores better and costs less for consumers compared to traditional bagged ice, and the smaller, leak-proof packaging is 100% recycle-ready. For every one pound of plastic used in packaging, Relocalize will remove and recycle two pounds of ocean plastic. The process produces zero water waste (compared to 50% normally) and reduces trucking carbon dioxide emissions by 90%.

Highlights of the SEG-Relocalize Partnership

• 100% of production labor is self-contained to the microfactory at one of SEG’s distribution centers in Jacksonville, Florida.
•   Packaging is 100% recycle-ready and plastic-negative.
•   Relocalize removes 2 pounds of ocean plastic for each pound of plastic used.
•   Ice quality is improved and costs are reduced compared to traditional bagged ice.
•   It produces zero water waste and reduces trucking CO2 emissions by 90%.