Mazda Australia has entered into a 10-year lease for a 37,235 sqm national parts and distribution facility Melbourne’s North.
Nominations closing soon for Mercury Awards
The Mercury Awards, celebrating Australia’s logistics operators working to improve the industry’s visibility, reputation and future prosperity are calling for nominees.
$44 million warehouse will become new delivery centre for JB HI-FI
Australian property development company Stockland has announced JB HI-FI has acquired a new 18,023 sqm delivery centre in Melbourne’s western industrial precinct.
Australia’s most traffic congested city revealed
Location technology specialist TomTom has released the results of a report detailing traffic congestion from 57 countries around the world.
LOGOS expands its Melbourne logistics portfolio with major acquisition
LOGOS has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire a strategic asset in Truganina, one of Melbourne’s prime industrial suburbs, via an off market deal.
The asset on completion will provide a purpose built facility offering 48,770sqm of GLA for an initial ten year term. The deal is anticipated to complete in early 2020.
Located at 30 Logistics Drive, the 8.5 hectare property benefits from direct access to Melbourne’s key arterial road networks, including the Princes Highway, West Gate Freeway and Western Right Road.
“The Melbourne logistics market continues to perform strongly and we are pleased to be able to strengthen our foothold in this strategic market. LOGOS’ Melbourne portfolio now stands at circa 350,000sqm with an additional 27 hectares of development land at our Truganina Logistics Estate. We are a strong advocate of the benefits that western Melbourne provides Victorian and Australian supply chains and are confident we will see strong rental growth and tenant demand over the coming years in this area as a result of the diminishing supply of available zoned and serviced land,” Darren Searle, LOGOS’ Head of Australia and New Zealand said.
Truganina is a well-established industrial suburb which includes facilities for a number of large format logistics operators, including FMCG/Supermarket operators, e-commerce operators and 3PL groups.
LOGOS’ Australian portfolio, which spans New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, has a target end value of over $4.2 billion.
Toyota to introduce autonomous vehicles in Altona warehouse
Toyota Australia together with Toyota Material Handling Australia and Toyota Fleet Management, will be introducing a fleet of autonomous Autopilot vehicles in to its Altona warehouse from its operation start in 2020.
Manufactured in Sweden by Toyota Material Handling Europe, the fleet itself will consist of six Autopilot Tow Trucks (TAE500) and one Autopilot Reach Truck (RAE160), the flagship model when it comes to warehouse automation.
They will apply Autopilot driverless technology to achieve mobility in conveyance, towing, lifting, and be able to autonomously place product throughout the warehouse and pick orders for customers.
All models in the range will also have the ability to be used in manual mode as conventional warehouse vehicles allowing complete flexibility in operations.
In addition to enhanced safety, Autopilot will also deliver energy efficiencies via Lithium-Ion battery technology, automatic charging, high vehicle utilisation, and low maintenance costs.
Toyota Australia Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Sean Hanley, said the mobility company has a thorough understanding and appreciation of the importance of automation technology.
“Toyota Australia will continue to develop, progress, and employ these new ways of thinking whenever possible. We are extremely committed to delivering the highest level of reliability, performance, and productivity, and Autopilot ticks every one of these boxes,” Sean said.
NewCold appoints new Global Chief Commercial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
NewCold, a global cold logistics company, has announced that Abhy Maharaj will join the company as its Global Chief Commercial Officer & Chief Operating Officer, effective 1 July 2019. Abhy will be based in Melbourne.
Headquartered in The Netherlands, the company has eight locations in three continents; offers over 800,000 pallet positions and has a team of around 750 employees, recently opening two new facilities in Melbourne, Australia.
In this new role, Abhy Maharaj will work closely with Bram Hage, Founder and Executive Officer, and the Global Management Team of NewCold on the company’s overall strategy and execution and will oversee NewCold’s business planning, marketing, business development and operating efficiency. Abhy will be based in Melbourne, so that he is close to business expansion opportunities in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and China.
“I am pleased to have someone with Abhy’s experience on our leadership team as we accelerate our growth into a fully-fledged multi-national with highly automated supply chain solutions across all key cold-chain growth markets. Abhy will strengthen our commercial disciplines, customer relationships and strategic execution,” Bram Hage, Founder and Executive Office said.
Abhry has more than 20 years’ experience in global corporate management, strategic and commercial development, and creating and implementing high-growth strategies for disruptive technologies and solutions. He previously held senior positions with Air New Zealand and Fonterra Dairy Co-operative.
Melbourne-based 3D printer signs deal with Boeing
Australian advanced manufacturing company Titomic Limited has announced it has signed an agreement with The Boeing Company to deliver additively manufacturing test parts for airplanes. This initial agreement is for AUD$170,000.
“Titomic is pleased to announce this trial agreement with Boeing to deliver additively manufacturing test parts for airplanes. Currently, with traditional manufacturing process, there is up to an 80% material waste and 6-month lead time to CNC machine these parts. These Titomic Kinetic Fusion (TKF) produced parts will allow Boeing a significant reduction in lead-times, improved performance for composite part production and cycle times,” Jeff Lang, Titomic Managing Director said.
Titomic recently unveiled the world’s largest and fastest 3d printer.
Kaufland/Lidl: German retailer to spend $450m on new DC
Kaufland, one of the world’s largest supermarket chains, has confirmed it will open its first Australian distribution centre at Merrifield Business Park in Melbourne’s north.
The supermarket chain has purchased a large 28-hectare site on which it plans to construct a 110,000 square metre purpose-built distribution centre that will service their stores.
The facility will be one of the largest of its kind in Australia and feature extensive temperature controlled storage, the latest automated warehousing with a 40 metre high-bay storage as well as a 3,600 square metre office. The total investment in the facility is upwards of $450 million.
The facility is expected to bring an additional estimated 600 jobs to the local area upon completion.
The retailer, which is owned by Schwarz Group, the fourth largest retail chain in the world, selected Merrifield Business Park due to its strategic location on the Hume Freeway and proximity to Melbourne.
It is the fourth major deal for MAB Corporation and its partner Gibson Property Corporation at Merrifield Business Park, with Kaufland joining Dulux, D’Orsogna and Steritech in Victoria’s largest business park.
A Kaufland spokesperson said: “Our new state of the art distribution centre at Merrifield Business Park will be the company’s single biggest investment in Australia and enable Kaufland’s expansion. Merrifield was selected for its strategic location and ability to cater for future expansion of the facility.”
Emergent Cold acquires Melbourne-based Montague Cold Storage
Texas-based Emergent Cold has announced the acquisition of the Montague Cold Storage facilities in Melbourne.
According to Emergent Gold, this acquisition complements its broader strategy of acquiring and developing a global network of cold chain businesses.
Montagues was founded in 1948, by William (Bill) Montague OAM by purchasing a carting operation that turned the Montague name into a fresh food provider. The first orchard was planted at Narre warren, Victoria in 1950. Innovation continued with the introduction of Controlled Atmosphere storage to Australia in 1967, followed by their first cold storage facility at Allansford in 1989.
“We want to thank all the executives and staff who have contributed to this wonderful business over 60 years. The Montague family and management team will be focussing our energy and future endeavours in the horticultural industry, where there are many exciting opportunities both nationally and internationally,” Ray Montague, Chairman of Montague Group said.
Emergent Cold was founded in 2017 with the vision to build a global cold chain solution for multinational customers. Emergent Cold has grown through a combination of business acquisitions and greenfield developments in emerging and developing markets.
“We are delighted to welcome the Montague Cold Storage team to the Emergent Cold network. Combining Montague’s assets with our national service capability will further strengthen our offering to the Australian and International market,” Neal Rider, CEO of Emergent Cold said.