Coles opens high-tech fulfilment centre in greater Melbourne

Coles has opened a new Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Truganina, just over 20 km west of Melbourne’s CBD. It is the first of two CFCs that the supermarket plans to launch this year as part of a $400 million partnership with online grocery technology company Ocado.

Coles Chief Executive Officer Leah Weckert was at the opening of the inaugural CFC in Victoria on Friday 20 September.

“We sought the best global technology in the world to reimagine the Coles Online experience here in Australia. This transition from a local, store-based fulfilment model to a central, world-class facility will enable us to better serve the greater Melbourne region, home to more than five million people,” Weckert said.

Using Ocado technology with artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and automation, the CFC will help to transform the way Coles Online orders are picked, packed and delivered.

The 87,000 m² site at Truganina is designed to provide improvements for online shoppers such as better availability, fewer substitutions, increased range of products and improvements in the shelf-life of staples like mince and milk.

The site features a centralised hub, known as ‘The Hive’, where a fleet of more than 700 bots will fulfil an order containing 50 items in just five minutes, while an artificial intelligence ‘air traffic’ control system will oversee the bots as they move around giant 3D grids, transporting containers of grocery items to be packed and delivered by Coles team members.

When fully operational, the site will hold three million units of stock while having the ability to process more than 10,000 customer orders per day. It will house a range of specialty brands and local foods from smaller suppliers. There is also an on-site bakery which will bake to order twice a day, and a fresh produce area where produce is cut and packaged to order, in an effort to reduce wastage.

The CFC will employ more than 1000 team members, including drivers and fulfilment roles that will use high-tech packing equipment, and there will be a fleet of more than 200 home delivery vans specially designed with dual compartments to ensure fresher products while reducing emissions, and a side door to make it easier and safer for delivery drivers to unload. The delivery catchment will span the Melbourne region from Ballan in the west across to Bunyip in the east, and from Beveridge in the north down to the Mornington Peninsula.

Called Brungilo Curran — meaning Stringybark Gum Tree — the Truganina CFC has sustainability features including a two-megawatt solar installation, sensor lighting, water recycling system, and 100% recycling of cardboard.

The first of two CFCs, the opening of the Truganina CFC follows on from Coles Group’s opening of two automated distribution centres in Kemps Creek, New South Wales and Redbank, Queensland within the last 18 months.

A second CFC site in Wetherill Park, New South Wales, is scheduled to open next month.