Coles opens its second customer fulfilment centre in Sydney

Coles has opened its second Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC), which is located 40 km west of Sydney’s CBD in Wetherill Park. It’s the second of two CFCs to launch this year as part of a $400 million partnership with Ocado, with the first CFC opening in Truganina, Victoria, last month. Once fully operational, the facility is designed to have better availability, fewer substitutions, an increased range of products and improvements in the shelf life of staples like mince and milk.

Using Ocado technology, the Wetherill Park site has a footprint of more than 87,000 m² and can hold three million units of stock while having the ability to process more than 10,000 customer orders per day when running at full capacity. The site features a centralised hub, known as ‘The Hive’, where a fleet of more than 700 bots will fulfil a customer 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.

Coles Chief Executive Officer Leah Weckert said: “The launch of our CFCs in Victoria and NSW comes just in time for the busiest trading period — Christmas. With greater choice, better availability, improved freshness and more flexible delivery options, our CFCs are making it easier for our customers to shop this Christmas.”

The NSW CFC’s delivery catchment is home to more than five million people and spans the growing Sydney region from Hazelbrook in the west across to Bondi in the east, and from Cowan in the north all the way down to Bargo.

The site will house a range of specialty brands and local foods from smaller suppliers like Byron Bay Peanut Butter Company. The extended product ranges also span the health and dietary, vitamin and baby categories — with a wider selection of brands and products designed to support the growing needs of customers. There is an onsite bakery which will bake to order twice a day, and a fresh produce area where produce is cut and packaged to order.

There will also be extended delivery windows from 5 am to 10 pm, with later cut-offs for next-day deliveries in the morning and evening.

The site 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 around 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.

It has been designed to support best-practice sustainability, with features of the build including a 2 MW solar installation, sensor lighting, water recycling system and 100% recycling of cardboard.