Coles aims to double online delivery orders, plans $70m NSW warehouse
About a thousand automated robots will make buying groceries even easier when Coles overhauls online shopping. And it’s eyeing a large parcel of land in western Sydney to make that happen.
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Automated robots will help make online shopping easier with Coles looking to spend $72m building a Horsley Park warehouse that’ll work around the clock receiving, storing, handling and distributing online food and groceries, according to a development application.
A Coles spokesman confirmed the company is working with the Western Sydney Parkland Trust to develop the 28,000sq m warehouse on the corner of Cowpasture Rd and Trivet St.
Coles announced earlier this year it would make it possible for more customers to order groceries online and have them delivered to their door by 2023. The company penned a $140m deal to implement UK-firm Ocado’s online grocery website, warehouse technology and distribution platform in the coming years.
The Horsley Park facility would be one-of-two online-only warehouses in Australia; a second is planned for Melbourne. It would use about a thousand automated robots and 230 employees to fulfil from $500m to $750m in online grocery orders each year.
The online delivery warehouse would “approximately double Coles’ current Australia-wide home delivery capacity,” the company said.
Coles was drawn to the Horsley Park site because it’s close to key transport routes – such as the M7 – and because of its “central location” in the greater Sydney region, the spokesman said.
The land eyed for development is being released by the Western Sydney Parkland Trust as part of the Horsley Drive Business Park. The 88,700sq m business park makes up two per cent of the parkland’s land, and will help fund the maintenance of the sprawling urban park system.