Woolworths Group’s supply chain arm, Primary Connect, has commenced building works on its new National Distribution Centre in the Moorebank Logistics Park in western Sydney.
Set to open in 2024, the Moorebank National Distribution Centre is expected to strengthen Primary Connect’s national supply chain and to service more than 1000 Woolworths supermarkets across Australia. The site will be co-located with the Moorebank Regional Distribution Centre, which will start construction later and open in 2025.
With “cutting-edge” automation and 75,000sqm of floor space across both sites, Moorebank will enable Woolworths to offer its customers an expanded range and improved stock availability in-store.
Investment
Woolworths Group will invest around $700-$780 million in the technology and fitout of both distribution centres in partnership with Dematic and Vanderlande.
Qube will invest around $440 million to build the distribution centres, with Woolworths signing an initial 20-year lease.
Keeping pace with demand and expectations
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci says the challenges of the past year have put a spotlight on the critical role the company’s distribution centres play in providing the essential food and everyday needs Australian communities rely on.
“To keep pace with growing demand and ever evolving customer expectations, we need to continue to invest in new technology and capacity to power our next generation supply chain,” he says.
“We have ambitions to offer a more tailored range of products in our stores. This has traditionally been constrained by what we can hold in our distribution centres.
“Once both centres are up and running, we’ll be able to carry up to 8000 additional products in our range than we can in our existing facilities. This will help unlock a much better shopping experience for our customers.
“With unrivalled logistics infrastructure and connections to key port, rail and road networks, Moorebank is the ideal base for what will be our largest single supply chain investment.”
Sustainability features
Each distribution centre is targeting a Five Star Green Star Design and As-Built rating. They will incorporate sustainability initiatives including solar PV systems, LED warehouse lighting and rainwater harvesting.
Mr Banducci says that the steps Woolworths takes to become a more sustainable business today will help create a better tomorrow for generations to come.
“At Moorebank, we’ll harness renewable energy at scale, with some 9500 solar panels set to generate 5550mwh of energy each year,” he says. “This is equivalent to 880 households’ annual energy consumption and will offset about 13% of our power needs at Moorebank.”