The opening of Coles’ Automated Distribution Centre (ADC) in Redbank, south-west of Brisbane, is one of the most significant moments in the company’s 109-year history and five years in the making, CEO Steven Cain says.
The Redbank ADC uses Witron technology and according to Coles is the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the first of two Witron facilities commissioned by the retailer, with the second site at Kemps Creek in western Sydney set to open next year.
Coles has invested more than $1 billion in the two sites. More than 3000 people worked on Redbank, contributing more than 2.5 million work hours from the planning and design to construction and the installation and commissioning of the automation.
When operating at full capacity, Coles said the site can process up to four million cases per week, the equivalent of 32 million units sold in stores. Over the course of a year, this is around 1.6 billion sales units.
The Redbank ADC 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 New South Wales.
Cain said modernising operations were needed to improve efficiency and the availability of products in stores.
“Our new ADCs can process twice the number of cases and hold twice the number of pallets compared to one of our current DCs. The ADCs enable us to half our current total footprint, leading to a more productive and sustainable business model.
“Over 90 per cent 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,” Cain said.
The ADC is 66,000 square metres with a 34 metre High Bay pallet storage area. It can hold more than 18,000 ambient products, reducing the reliance on products coming from Sydney or Brisbane.
WITRON Logistik + Informatik CEO Helmut Prieschenk said Coles has partnered with the market leader in warehouse automation systems for major food retailers globally.
“We have been engaged to build 93 automated distribution centres in 13 different countries, with the latest for Coles being the largest ambient system Witron has ever built,” Prieschenk said.
The company will work with Coles for day-to-day operations, technical expertise, and maintenance support, he said.
The Witron pack pattern algorithm enables store order pallets to be packed to different heights in an optimal stacking sequence, based on product characteristics and store friendly logic. It means that once pallets are delivered to store, they require less sorting due to improved product grouping, and greater levels of accuracy. The aim is to improve on-shelf availability and allow store teams to be more customer focused.
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 3.5-megawatt solar installation which will be among the largest rooftop solar solutions in the Coles network.
To minimise food waste, the edible food that can’t be sold in the ADC will be donated to Coles community partner SecondBite.
