Woolworths begins construction on Moorebank national distribution centre

Primary Connect, the supply chain arm of Woolworths Group, has commenced construction 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 set to strengthen Primary Connect’s national supply chain and service more than 1,000 Woolworths Supermarkets across Australia.

The site will be co-located with the Moorebank Regional Distribution Centre (DC), which will start construction later and open in 2025.

Once completed, the 75,000sqm area across both sites will span nearly five SCG playing fields. The sites will be using cutting-edge automation to enable Woolworths to offer its customers an expanded range of products across its stores.

In partnership with Dematic and Vanderlande, Woolworths Group will invest around $700-$780 million in the technology and fitout of both distribution centres. Qube will invest around $440 million to build the distribution centres, with Woolworths signing an initial 20 year lease.

In case you missed it: Dematic to commision new automated distribution centre for Woolworths 

Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said the challenges of the past year have put a spotlight on the critical role 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,” Banducci said

“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,” he said.

He revealed that once both centres are up and running, Woolworths be able to carry up to 8,000 additional products in their range than they can in their existing facilities.

“This will help unlock a much better shopping experience for our customers,” he said.

Each distribution centre is targeting a Five Star Green Star Design and As-Built rating and will incorporate sustainability initiatives including solar PV systems, LED warehouse lighting and rainwater harvesting.

“The steps we take to become a more sustainable business today will help create a better tomorrow for generations to come,” Banducci said.

“At Moorebank, we’ll harness renewable energy at scale, with some 9,500 solar panels set to generate 5,550mwh of energy each year. This is equivalent to 880 households’ annual energy consumption and will offset about 13 percent of our power needs at Moorebank,” he said.

The highly automated facilities will build tailored pallets for specific aisles in individual stores. This helps improve in-store product availability with faster restocking and reduces congestion in stores – ultimately enabling a safer work environment for teams with less manual handling demands.

The Moorebank investment was first announced in June 2020.

Source: Woolworths Group