The upgraded distribution centre in Queensland is maximising technology, distribution and production for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. Doris Prodanovic writes. This article first appearing in the June 2021 issue of Food & Drink Business.
When Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP, formerly Coca-Cola Amatil) first opened its $165 million Richlands, Queensland site back in October 2018, it became the company’s largest Australian production and distribution plant.
The 30,000m2 warehouse and distribution centre is the exclusive Australian bottling and distribution centre for Coke’s signature ‘contour’ glass bottles, and its most recent expansion has seen production almost double, from 180 SKUs to more than 320 SKUs.
“The Richlands distribution centre has a huge amount of firepower to be able to deliver to a variety of customers,” says CCEP Australia supply chain director Orlando Rodriguez.
“It’s exciting that the company has made such a heavy investment in Queensland, and brings this new distribution centre to life.”
The Richlands site now caters for 10 production lines, up from its original four. Carbonated soft drinks, post mix, water and flavoured water, Powerade, as well as dairy, alcohol and energy drinks are all produced at the facility, and then distributed and shipped to both domestic and export customers.
Rodriguez says the location of the facility offers a strong combination of road and port access, production efficiency, and access to the nation’s east coast markets.
Speed and agility
High speed transportation of 350 pallets of finished goods per hour can now move directly from the manufacturing plant and into the new distribution centre since the introduction of the Gantry, also known as the “conveyor air bridge”.
It has “significantly boosted productivity at Richlands,” says Rodriguez, and “gives us a lot of flexibility and agility for the future to be able to deliver in a way that we need to as the market changes and evolves, as it has so rapidly in recent times”.
To connect the back of the production lines to the warehouse air bridge, CCEP introduced Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to improve safety and efficiency to thefacility.
AGVs have not only reduced the number of forklift movements in the area, but the technology has also become an integral solution in joining the two major facilities – manufacturing and warehouse – at the same site.
“About fifty per cent of our manual handling tasks have now been automated at this site, which ultimately means less injuries and less risk to do manual handling, driven by the automation,” says Rodriguez.
An integrated system
The installation of the latest, single integrated processing technology – a SAP Extended Warehouse Management system – has increased visibility of operations and “better matches supply with demand to meet customer needs on time and in full”, says CCEP Australia strategic development manager Anthony Lee.
“There are other systems like this in the world, but I would say none are more advanced, because here we have the integration of the case picking with our bulk storage and it’s a very flexible system,” says Lee.
CCEP’s Richlands site also has one of the largest rooftop solar systems in Queensland, with 3064 panels providing energy for its needs.
