It's been a big year for Mainfreight, back in April the New Zealand-founded-company opened a 55,000 sqm warehouse, strategically located within Moorebank’s Intermodal Terminal in Sydney’s South-West. Investment in this facility enables the Mainfreight team to deliver smooth and efficient services to beverage customers.
What you can expect from Mainfreight’s new Sydney warehousing facility
- Warehousing and wharf operations: The new Sydney facility combines Mainfreight’s Warehousing and Wharf operations under one roof, creating seamless supply chain efficiencies for customers.
- Pallet spaces: 70,000 racked pallet spaces.
- Temperature controlled area: 35,000 pallet spaces that are specifically built for temperature sensitive freight such as wines, kept at a constant temperature.
- Bonded: The Moorebank warehouse is a bonded so that you can enjoy the benefits of deferred duty and tax payments until your freight are sold.
- Satellite racking: Satellite racking condenses storage into a single space with multiple layers and levels, eliminating the need for multiple aisles and enabling high storage efficiency. It is particularly advantageous for customers handling high volumes of a limited number of SKUs, as each shuttle bay can accommodate one SKU with the same batch, streamlining inventory management. This has been particularly beneficial for a global beverage customer, who requires up to 5,000 pallet spaces at the Moorebank site.
- Autonomous Mobile Robotics (AMR): Mainfreight have invested in robotics to improve overall efficiency in their Sydney Facility. These robots operate autonomously within a designated grid or pick path environment, picking up shelves of products without human involvement. The primary advantage lies in the "goods to person" approach, where instead of team members traversing the warehouse to pick orders, the AMRs bring the goods directly to the team members, enhancing efficiency and reducing labour requirements.
- Sortation systems: Moorebank's sortation system streamlines the sorting process, enabling faster order processing and quicker beverage delivery. By automating sorting, it reduces human error, ensuring that the correct products reach the right customers.
What Mainfreight’s proximity to rail offers
The new Sydney Warehouse is 32 km from Port Botany. Notorious for causing delays, this journey takes over 40 minutes by road in good traffic conditions. The facility is strategically located within the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal which has a rail connection from Port Botany. This grants Mainfreight’s wharf operations direct access to Port Botany via the rail system, significantly reducing container freight transit times from the port.
Switching to rail not only improves efficiency but also offers substantial emissions reductions. Moving freight by rail is the most fuel-efficient land transport option, capable of moving nearly 500 tonnes on a single tank of fuel and removing hundreds of trucks from the highway. By using rail instead of trucks, Greenhouse Gas emissions can be reduced by up to 75%.
For beverage freight customers, these emissions reductions translate into a more sustainable supply chain, potentially lowering regulatory costs and improving brand reputation among environmentally conscious consumers.
Discover the difference Mainfreight can make to your supply chain by connecting with the team or visit the Mainfreight website.
Mainfreight is a Silver Partner of the Drinks Association.