The supermarket giant today began building a massive national distribution centre at Moorebank which will soon service 1000 supermarkets across the country.
It’s the first of two distribution centres, worth more than one billion dollars, that the supermarket will build at the site. In total, they’ll take up the space of five SCG ovals.
They will be automated which means some traditional warehouse roles will be gone.
“We’re going to have to invest in our team in our existing warehouses – some of them will come and work here but many of them we’ll have to invest in and give them skills for the future,” Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said.
The company says 2000 jobs will be created, with 1300 of those coming during construction of the two centres.
About 80 per cent of that workforce will be from Sydney’s west.
“When we select our subcontractors, we’re ensuring that they’re based out in the Western Suburbs of Sydney,” Claude Concha from Richard Crookes Construction said.
Woolworths says when construction is complete on both centres in 2025, they’ll be able to stock 8000 new products in stores.
“Eight thousand is a lot of new products but that will then be streamed into the store depending on what that particular store needs or what the customers around that store are looking for,” Mr Banducci said.
Effectively, supermarket shelves will be tailored to the needs of a neighbourhood.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has welcomed the investment.
“It’s great that they see NSW as the best place to do business,” he said.
This content first appear on 9news