Southern Glazer's expands inventory drones to nine sites

Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits has expanded its use of Corvus Robotics' autonomous inventory drones to nine distribution centres across the US, deploying more than 40 drones.

The rollout, part of Southern Glazer's broader supply chain overhaul, has taken place over the past 18 months. The drones scan and validate reserve storage locations in active warehouses, with inventory data linked to the distributor's warehouse management system.

Across the sites, the system has completed about 5,000 flights and identified more than 35,000 verified discrepancies, including misplaced pallets, missing licence plate numbers and incorrect pallet placements.

At facilities using the system, inventory checks have increased from quarterly counts to biweekly turns. That shift has allowed teams to identify and resolve stock issues before they affect picking and outbound shipments.

The distributor also linked the rollout to a 100 basis point improvement in cases per hour, a warehouse throughput metric. It added that 60 to 70 labour hours a week at each site had been reassigned from manual cycle counting to other operational work.

Warehouse focus

Corvus One drones operate in live warehouse environments, flying through aisles without human operators. The system creates a visual record of scans, including time-stamped footage of pallet positions and label information, which warehouse teams can review when investigating inventory issues.

That is significant in beverage distribution, where each pallet can carry substantial value and inventory errors can affect service levels, fill rates and labour planning. Southern Glazer's operates in 47 US markets and Canada, making inventory control a central issue for a business of its scale.

"Across our network, inventory accuracy directly impacts how effectively we serve our customers," said Karli Sage, Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Technology & Engineering, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits. "By increasing the frequency and precision of our reserve inventory validation, we are identifying issues earlier, improving fill rates, and enabling our teams to focus on proactive problem solving instead of reactive counting. The speed at which we have scaled this technology across nine sites reflects the value it is delivering to our operations."

The move reflects a broader warehousing trend, with distributors using automation for repetitive checking tasks rather than only for picking or transport. Inventory checking has often remained labour-intensive, particularly in high-SKU facilities with fast-moving outbound operations.

In Southern Glazer's case, the drones are used in reserve storage rather than customer-facing picking activity. This allows auditing to continue without interrupting floor operations, an important consideration in facilities where order fulfilment runs continuously.

Network rollout

The partnership also includes regular cross-site reviews so facilities can compare practices and adjust workflows. These reviews are intended to help standardise how the system is used across the network.

For Corvus Robotics, the expansion provides a reference customer in one of North America's largest beverage alcohol distributors. The company also cited customers in consumer products and third-party logistics, but Southern Glazer's scale makes this rollout notable in a sector where warehouse errors can quickly affect delivery performance.

"Southern Glazer's operates at a scale where small improvements in accuracy have meaningful downstream impact," said Jackie Wu, Chief Executive Officer of Corvus Robotics. "Their team has embraced autonomous inventory as core infrastructure within their supply chain transformation initiative. Scaling to nine facilities with more than 40 drones demonstrates strong operational buy-in and sets a new benchmark for how beverage distributors can modernize inventory control without slowing the floor."

Autonomous drones have drawn interest from warehouse operators seeking to improve stock visibility without adding headcount. In sectors such as food and beverage distribution, where facilities carry large numbers of SKUs and service expectations are tight, more frequent inventory validation can reduce mismatches between recorded and actual stock.

Southern Glazer's said the system allows inventory teams to work from verified exceptions rather than broad manual counts. Staff can review high-resolution images, label scans and historical video logs linked to individual storage locations, helping them focus on resolving identified problems rather than searching for them.

The result is a more targeted approach to cycle counting in a network where even small inventory errors can have knock-on effects on fulfilment and productivity. Across the nine distribution centres now using the system, the combination of more frequent audits, visual verification and reallocated labour has changed how warehouse teams manage reserve inventory.