Groceries On Demand

H-E-B teams up with service that delivers hand-picked supermarket items to your home in an hour

Texas grocery giant H-E-B has announced a formal agreement with San Francisco-based Instacart — a grocery delivery service whose personal shoppers hand pick and deliver items from local stores — in Houston and Austin, as well as expanding the service to stores in The Woodlands and Katy.

Instacart already provides service from H-E-B under an informal partnership, but the new agreement solidifies the arrangement and gives users the ability to shop for virtually any product offered at the store, according to the Houston Business Journal.

"Don't have time to come to H-E-B? No problem. We'll bring H-E-B to you with Instacart," said Scott McClelland, president of H-E-B Houston Division, in a press release. "Instacart's ability to deliver on-demand clearly matches our focus of making our customers' lives better. We are excited to offer a larger assortment of H-E-B items to customers in Austin and Houston."

Instacart initially launched in Houston last August and Austin last May. In Houston, customers currently have access to items from Whole Foods Market, Costco — no membership is required — and Petco, in addition to H-E-B. Customers who utilize the service can expect items to be delivered in as little as an hour.

The service, which can be accessed through a phone app or online, is currently available in areas including River Oaks, Bellaire, West University and Memorial, with Katy and The Woodlands as the newest destinations.

New customers can open an account online and receive free delivery and $10 off their first order using promo code HEBLOVE through September 30. Instacart also offers Instacart Express — an annual membership that eliminates delivery fees for all orders of $35 or more — for a fee of $99 per year.

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breaking ground

Pharmacy giant Bristol Myers Squibb to build $2.3B Houston factory

Bristol Myers Squibb Houston factory rendering

Courtesy of Bristol Myers Squibb

The 60,000-square-foot facility is expected to open in 2030.

New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has officially named Houston as the home of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing site.

The 60,000-square-foot facility represents a $2.3 billion investment, according to a news release. It is expected to create 500 skilled jobs and will be located in Houston's Generation Park.

BMS first announced that it was considering Houston among 16 other cities for the facility in May. The new hub will manufacture small molecule, biologic and antibody-drug conjugates and is part of a $40 billion commitment to invest in the United States over five years. Construction is slated to begin next year, with the facility coming online in 2030.

"We're building the domestic manufacturing capabilities needed to deliver the next generation of medicines and support future scientific breakthroughs. Houston and the state of Texas offer the talent, infrastructure, and partnership needed to help bring that vision to life," Christopher Boerner, CEO and board chair of BMS, said in the release.

The new facility will feature a modular, multi-modal design, which will allow the company to reconfigure and add to its manufacturing capabilities over time. BMS says it expects the facility to "(grow) in scale and capability well beyond its opening configuration."

"Our decision to build this state-of-the-art manufacturing campus in Houston, Texas, reflects our confidence in the region’s ability to support a world-class, digitally advanced supply operation,” Karin Shanahan, EVP and chief supply chain and operations officer of BMS, added in the release. “This facility is designed to deliver the speed, quality, and reliability that patients depend on, combining flexible, modular manufacturing with advanced digital capabilities to ensure consistent supply across multiple modalities. It strengthens our ability to operate with resilience and positions us to reliably deliver medicines to patients today while adapting future demands.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shared that the state has granted BMS a $4.89 million Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant for the project. TEF grants, administered by the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office, support business relocation or expansion projects that create "new, good-paying jobs in the community and attract significant new capital investment to the state." The development is also a qualified project under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program.

“Texas is a global hub for life sciences, where today’s innovations shape the future of healthcare,” Abbott said in a news release. “This $2.3 billion investment by Bristol Myers Squibb in the dynamic biotech ecosystem in Houston is a testament to the depth of our skilled workforce and the pipeline of talent coming through our nation-leading technical colleges and research universities. With lower operating costs and easy access to markets across the U.S. and the world, Texas drives affordability for consumers.”

"Bristol Myers Squibb’s announcement is a tremendous win for Texas and the Houston region, further reinforcing our position as a premier destination for life sciences and advanced manufacturing,” added Greater Houston Partnership President and CEO Steve Kean.

Last fall, Eli Lilly and Co. selected Generation Park, a 4,300-acre, master-planned commercial district near Lake Houston, for its $6.5 billion manufacturing plant. More than 300 locations in the U.S. competed for the factory. Read more here.

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This story was first published on our sister site InnovationMap.