Lead photo: A Corvus One autonomous inventory drone performs a cycle counting mission at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits distribution center in Raymore, MO. (Corvus One photo)

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is expanding its use of autonomous drone technology for warehouse inventory management through a nationwide deployment with Corvus Robotics.

The beverage alcohol distributor has rolled out more than 40 Corvus One drones across nine distribution centers over the past 18 months, with additional sites planned as part of a broader supply chain transformation initiative.

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Corvus One is an autonomous inventory management system that operates within active warehouse environments, flying through aisles to scan and validate reserve storage locations without interrupting picking operations. The drones perform continuous, high-frequency inventory audits that integrate directly with Southern Glazer’s warehouse management system.

Across deployed facilities, the system has completed roughly 5,000 flights and identified more than 35,000 inventory discrepancies, according to the companies. These discrepancies can include misplaced pallets, missing license plate numbers or incorrect storage locations — issues that carry significant value implications in beverage distribution.

Southern Glazer’s reports measurable operational improvements from the deployment. Increased inventory accuracy has contributed to a 100-basis-point gain in cases per hour, while the frequency of inventory validation has shifted from quarterly counts to biweekly cycles.

The company also said the system is enabling more efficient labor allocation. Approximately 60 to 70 labor hours per week per site have been reassigned from manual cycle counting to higher-value tasks such as resolving identified discrepancies.

The drones generate a visual record of each scan, including time-stamped images and video tied to specific storage locations, which can be used for root-cause analysis and operational coaching.

Southern Glazer’s operates in 47 U.S. markets and Canada and is one of the largest distributors of beverage alcohol products. Company executives said the ability to scale the drone system across multiple sites reflects its role as a core component of ongoing efforts to improve inventory accuracy, fill rates and overall warehouse efficiency.

The partnership also includes cross-site collaboration between facilities to standardize deployment practices and performance benchmarks as the rollout continues.