Distribution Center Third Witron Center for Coles

In the distribution centers in Brisbane and Sydney, Coles uses Witron technology to pick 1.6 billion sales units annually from a dry assortment of 19,000 different items. More than 90 percent of these are picked fully automatically or at semi-automated workstations.

Australia is both geographically and structurally a logistical exception: “We are about 30 million people—in a country as large as Europe,” explains Matt Swindells, Chief Operations and Supply Chain Officer at Australian grocery retailer Coles. The consequence: vast distances, long transport times, decentralized production sites. Fresh products are almost entirely local: “96 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables come from Australia, and fresh meat must be produced domestically by law.” Today, online penetration in the Australian grocery retail sector stands at almost 12 percent and is rising. Coles offers next-day delivery, Click & Collect, and express deliveries within one hour.

Most Powerful Distribution Centers in the Southern Hemisphere

In 2019, Coles commissioned Witron to plan, implement, and service two highly automated distribution centers (ADCs) in Redbank (near Brisbane, Queensland) and Kemps Creek (near Sydney, New South Wales). "Strictly speaking, they are not logistics centers, they are actually factories that build densely packed, store-friendly pallets," says Swindells.

OPM, AIO, And CPS Pick 19,000 Different Items

The distribution centers process around 5,000 pallets daily from hundreds of suppliers. In total, approximately 19,000 different retail SKUs are stored, picked, and shipped. More than 90 percent of the entire volume is fully automated—from goods receipt to goods dispatch. Picking is carried out using Witron solutions OPM (Order Picking Machinery), AIO (All-in-One Order Fulfillment), and CPS (Car Picking System). A fully automated goods dispatch buffer ensures "just-in-time" delivery, providing store- and route-specific preparation of customer pallets in the shipping area.

Picking of 1.6 Billion Sales Units Annually

Each week, Coles picks over four million ready-to-ship units onto pallets or into containers per ADC. These are consolidated, sorted, and packed specifically for over two hundred stores in the DC regions. This amounts to a total of 32 million products sold in stores. Annually, that equals 1.6 billion sales units per ADC. According to Swindells, there is now less truck traffic in both goods receipt and store deliveries. At the same time, they manage to guarantee higher delivery frequency for slow-moving items. Additionally, lead times have been reduced, and inventory management has improved. Coles follows a control tower concept: “We connect the Witron system, transport management, store planning, and workforce management on one data level.” The goal: flexible, dynamic networks—optimized, for example, based on customer behavior, weather, demand, and cost structures. “AI isn’t the hard part,” Swindells emphasizes. “It’s much harder to build the structural assets.”

Another Location in Melbourne Has Been Commissioned

Due to the achieved economic goals of the two projects in Brisbane and Sydney, a third project has already been commissioned. Another dry assortment ADC with a capacity of over 4.5 million cases per week is being built in Melbourne. Here too, the proven solutions OPM, AIO, CPS, and the automated shipping buffer are utilized.

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