The largest facility in the Southern Hemisphere, the supermarket retail chain has announced the opening of its first Automated Distribution Centre (ADC) in Australia using leading logistic technology.
Following the supermarket retail chain group’s largest investment in technology in the company’s 109-year history, the first of two logistic technology facilities to open in Queensland, this one. The second ADC will open at Kemps Creek, New South Wales, in 2024, with an investment of more than one billion dollars.
According to the supermarket retail chain, the ADCs provide safer and more sustainable results for team members and suppliers and greater on-shelf availability for customers.
Located 30 kilometers south-west of Brisbane, the state-of-the-art facility in Redbank will service 219 Coles supermarkets in Queensland and Northern New South Wales, as far north as Port Douglas and as far south as Laurieton in NSW.
The facility has a weekly processing capability of up to four million cases or 32 million units sold in retail locations, and translates to around 1.6 billion sales units over a year.
The event, which was five years in the planning, according to the Chief Executive Officer, is one of the most significant events.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, “Modernizing our operations allows us to deliver higher service levels for our customers, team members, and suppliers while increasing efficiency and availability in our stores.”
Compared to one of our current DCs, our new ADCs can process and store twice as many cases and pallets. We can reduce our overall footprint by half thanks to the ADCs, resulting in a more productive and sustainable business strategy.
Over 90 percent of the cases processed in these automated distribution centres will be processed fully by automation or ergonomically which will be a step-change for the safety of our team as it eliminates almost 18 million kilograms of manual handling in the supply chain each week once the ADC is running close to full capacity.
The Redbank ADC has LED and sensor lighting to reduce energy consumption and is fitted with 180,000 litres of harvested rainwater storage for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. There are plans for a 3.5-megawatt solar installation, among the largest rooftop solar solutions in the Supermarket Retail chain network. To minimise food waste, edible food that can’t be sold in the ADC will be donated to the supermarket retail chain community partner.
Once the ADC is operating at or near capacity, over 90% of the cases processed in these automated distribution centers will be fully automated or ergonomically processed, which will be a significant improvement for the safety of our team because it will reduce weekly manual handling in the supply chain by almost 18 million kilograms.
The Redbank ADC is equipped with 180,000 liters of collected rainwater storage for toilet flushing and landscaping irrigation and LED and sensor lighting to cut energy use. There are plans for a 3.5-megawatt solar project, one of the biggest rooftop solar systems in the network of supermarket chains. The edible food that cannot be sold in the ADC will be donated to reduce food waste.
According to the prime minister, this leading technology will help supermarket supply chains progress.
“This technology is an achievement for the state of Queensland as well as a first for Australia. Resilient supply chains are crucial for feeding our country and supplying Australians with necessities, as we have seen throughout the epidemic and natural catastrophes, he states.
One of the biggest employers in the country, the Supermarket Retail chain played a key role in providing food security during challenging times. This Redbank facility demonstrates how manufacturers and merchants may increase the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of their operations for all Australians.
