Coles will splash out $880 million on a new automated distribution centre in Victoria as it pushes further into robotics to keep products on shelves when customers demand. The supermarket giant will again partner with WITRON Australia, which has already helped it build two ADCs in NSW and Queensland over the past 18 months. Thursday’s announcement came as Coles revealed that comparable supermarket sales climbed higher in the first quarter, up 2.
4 per cent to $9.5 billion compared to a year earlier. But liquor sales remained flat at $851m.
Coles said work on the new ADC in Truganina, just west of Melbourne’s CBD, could take up to five years to complete but would be 15 per cent bigger than its first two centres. Once finished, it will process 4.6 million cartons a week, servicing all stores in Victoria and Tasmania — with integration into Coles’ existing supply chain in South Australia and WA — and will deliver full automation of the chain’s ambient distribution centre network across the eastern seaboard.
“This is another important step in Coles’ business transformation as we continue to invest in technology to enhance product availability for our customers and improve efficiency across our supply chain,” chief executive Leah Weckert said. “This new automated distribution centre in Victoria will complement our existing sites in Queensland and New South Wales, enabling us to drive productivity and further capitalise on the advantages of world-leading automati.
