Coles has opened its second Automated Distribution Centre (ADC) as part of its more than $1 billion investment in technology-led innovation.
The Kemps Creek ADC was recently opened by Coles Group Chairman James Graham and Coles Group CEO Leah Weckert.
Located 40 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD, the ADC has been designed to provide better availability for customers and create safer, more efficient outcomes for team members and suppliers.
The site spans 187,000 square metres, which is the equivalent size of around 25 rugby league fields. With a building size of 66,000 square metres, it’s one of the biggest automated distribution centres in the world.
Once operating at capacity, the Kemps Creek facility will service 229 New South Wales and ACT stores, with the site able to process more than four million cartons per week, the equivalent of 32 million products sold in stores. Over the course of a year, this is around 1.6 billion sales units.
It is part of the company’s single biggest capital investment in its 110-year history.
The first ADC opened in Redbank, Queensland in May last year and has since processed more than 140 million cartons, with customers in Queensland and Northern New South Wales seeing a 20 per cent improvement in availability compared to other stores.
The new DC steps up Coles investment into the state of NSW with the company also investing in its MilkCo facility at Erskine Park, and online Customer Fulfillment Centre at Wetherill Park.
Kemps Creek and Redbank ADCs form the two parts of a $1 billion plus investment in technology led innovation for a more efficient, sustainable, and safer supply chain.
Coles is also investing around $400 million across two online Customer Fulfillment Centres, one in Wetherill Park, NSW and the other in Truganina, VIC.
Chief Executive Officer Leah Weckert said she was proud of all the work the team had put into the opening of Coles’ second ADC.
“Today marks a key milestone on our roadmap to enhance our supply chain and improve our operating efficiency, with a world-class facility that will deliver improved availability for our NSW customers,” she said.
“We have seen great improvements in availability for our customers in Queensland and Northern New South Wales following the opening of Redbank ADC in Queensland last year – and I’m excited to see this second ADC bring these same benefits to NSW.
“This facility also delivers a step-change for the safety of our team, with the elimination of around 16 million kilograms of manual handling every week.”
Coles Group Chairman James Graham AM said he was pleased to see this major investment in Coles’ supply chain come to fruition.
“Over 4,400 people contributed more than 1.8 million working hours to building the site, installing the automation and getting the system ready for operation – it is an achievement that everyone should be very proud of.”
The Kemps Creek ADC is fitted with 3.5-megawatt solar solution on the roof, which is among the largest rooftop solar solution in the Coles network, with the Coles Group to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy by the end of FY25. To minimise food waste, edible food that can’t be processed to the stores will be donated to Coles’ community partners Foodbank and SecondBite.
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