Coles Group has opened the largest automated distribution centre (ADC) of its kind in the southern hemisphere at Goodman’s Redbank Motorway Estate in Queensland.  

The 66,000 sqm site – equivalent to the size of two Suncorp stadiums – can process up to four million cases per week and can hold over 18,000 ambient products when operating at full capacity. 

The new ADC, combined with Witron technology, will streamline operations to enable better on-shelf product availability for customers. 

The facility will service 219 supermarkets in QLD and Northern NSW. 

Coles CEO Steven Cain said modernising their operations was how they improved efficiency and availability in our stores and delivered higher service levels for their customers, team members and suppliers. 

Redbank Motorway estate is located adjacent to the Ipswich Motorway and is just 28km south-west of Brisbane CBD, with a population reach of 2.4 million people within a 60-minute drivetime. 

Goodman’s Redbank Motorway Estate in Queensland

To date, Goodman has developed 66 hectares of the site for large multi-national and domestic companies including DB Schenker, FedEx, Bapcor, Zenexus and Australia Post.  

The 49,000 sqm Australia Post facility was the largest parcel processing and sortation facility in Australia. 

It comes after Australia’s eastern seaboard experienced slowing industrial investment volumes in the first quarter of 2023, while rental growth remained resilient amid availability of stock and quality properties coming online.   

New Cushman and Wakefield research found that prime net face rents in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane had increased significantly due to robust tenant demand and a scarcity of leasable space, with Sydney precincts witnessing a 20% to 50% rise in rent prices between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023. 

Brisbane’s industrial and logistics market rents were the second-highest in Australia, averaging $145 per sqm pa at the end of Q1 2023.