Coles gets machines to do the heavy lifting as it chases tech talent

Outgoing Coles boss Steven Cain says a new breed of tech-savvy grocery warehouse worker is in demand as the supermarket giant puts machines in charge of the heavy lifting at its new automated production facility west of Brisbane, which launches on Thursday.

There’s little need for human pickers and packers at the group’s Witron facility in Redbank, where more than 90 per cent of the stock that moves through the site is touched by automated systems.

The minute a grocery product such as soft drink, pet food or confectionary is delivered from suppliers to the sprawling, 34 metre-high warehouse, the systems can work out what an item is and where it needs to go. Machines can then stack boxes into Tetris-perfect rows, ready to ship back out to hundreds of Coles stores across Queensland and NSW.

The automated systems, part of a $1 billion investment by Coles into more streamlined production facilities, remove the need for human forklift drivers or packers typically seen at a grocery distribution centre.

But Cain said the move to automation doesn’t mean fewer staff on site. Instead, the use of technology means the skills required at a distribution centre are changing, with a greater focus on workers overseeing the operation of the systems provided by Witron, Coles’ technology partner.

“The nature of roles in retail is changing, like it is in a lot of areas… The jobs that are in here and much more likely to be tech-based as opposed to manual-based,” he said.

“There’s probably a similar number of people on site to a [standard distribution centre]. However, it’s doing twice as much.”

Cain will hand over the reins at Coles to his successor Leah Weckert on May 1. Weckert, who joined Coles in 2011, had been mooted for the role after being appointed chief executive, commercial and express, last April.

Coles announced its foray into the automated distribution space four years ago, partnering with German logistics automation specialist Witron Logistik + Informatik to build the Ipswich facility as well as another site in NSW, which opens in 2024.