Amazon moves closer to opening $500m robotics warehouse in western Sydney
Internet giant Amazon Australia has moved closer to even greater domination in the local retail sector with the largest fulfilment centre in the southern hemisphere – the size of 24 rugby league fields – at the $150 million Goodman industrial estate in Sydney’s west.
It will be the first robotics-automated centre, covering 200,000 square metres over four levels, and will employ 1500 warehouse staff. And from this week 300 additional contractors will begin to arrive on site to start the fit out, including the installation of the conveyer belt and robotics equipment.
Once completed, the mammoth centre at the Goodman/Brickworks Oakdale West industrial estate, close to the future location of the western Sydney international airport at Badgerys Creek, will house up to 11 million items and will be equipped with the most advanced Amazon robotics technology.
Goodman is the largest landlord for Amazon globally and this new centre adds to its site at Moorebank in Sydney and the centre in Lytton, Brisbane. Amazon launched in Australia in December 2017.
Amazon Australia director of operation, Craig Fuller, said the new site, due to be operational at the end of 2021, will be the fifth fulfilment centre in the country and will carry smaller goods and items that will service metropolitan Sydney, the NSW central coast and up to Brisbane.
“This $500 million investment that Amazon’s making in western Sydney is a real commitment statement about Amazon and their future in Australia,” Mr Fuller said.
The group is also looking at smaller inner-city sites, such as Alexandria in Sydney’s south to cater for localised smaller deliveries.
“We took this template from a European model. But we had to make a couple of bespoke changes to reflect some of the logistics aspects that are adapted to Australian conditions,” Mr Fuller said, on a tour of the centre on Tuesday, which is still under construction.
“Once we get this building launched towards the end of the year 2021, it is about really consolidation and stabilisation for Amazon here.”
The property will also embrace high COVID safety standards that were introduced to the plans and fit-out last year when the global pandemic hit.
Goodman’s general manager Australia, Jason Little, said development of this fulfilment centre sees Goodman continue to deliver its global strategy of providing essential infrastructure to support the digital economy, and “to meet the increasing demand for strategically located logistics space with easy access to large consumer markets”.
“Our $150 million investment in roads and infrastructure will create road capacity and better access to services, building on outer-western Sydney as a key area for logistics and transportation,” Mr Little said.
Once operational, robots work collaboratively with employees by moving the pods of inventory to them, reducing the time and effort that would otherwise be required for the employee to stow items for sale or pick them for new customer orders.
They also save space, allowing for 50 per cent more items to be stowed per square metre which in turn allows for increased product selection.
