Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Briscoe Group is investing in excess of $100 million over the next three years to establish its new North Island distribution centre (DC), making it the single largest capital investment the group has ever made.
Briscoe Group is the parent company to Rebel Sport and Briscoe Homeware.
The new DC will be located in Drury, South Auckland. According to Briscoe Group, it had selected this location following an extensive search in the greater Auckland and Waikato region. It had also modelled inbound and outbound transport costs as well as property related costs.
The DC will include an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), holding around 40,000 storage locations over three aisles, serviced by 84 robot shuttles and three high-speed lifts.
Other automation initiatives include decant stations, where product is unpacked from cartons and placed into the storage totes, supported by conveyors to remove cardboard waste, supply empty totes to decant and take full totes for storage in the ASRS.
It will also have carton erectors, label applicators and carton closers; ergonomically designed goods to person pick stations; and a 200 chute shuttle sorter.
Briscoe expects the new DC to be operational towards the end of the first quarter of 2026, and for the ASRS and goods to person picking system to be operational by the fourth quarter of the same year.
This comes as Briscoe rolls out a new Warehouse Management System through its current DC, which is expected to be finalised by July 2024.
Group managing director Rod Duke said the warehousing and distribution project is expected to improve its inventory management and optimise its existing store footprint.
“We are well into the implementation of a new Warehouse Management System at our existing distribution centre,” Duke said. “This will enable our team to upskill before transitioning to a new North Island centre when it becomes operational in around two years.
“The new centre will be a state-of-the-art facility on a scale to handle significantly increased volumes in comparison to current capability. It will also enhance the way in which we buy and distribute sporting goods.”