On Monday 4 April 2022 the Woolworths Heathwood Chilled & Frozen Distribution Centre (HCFDC) in Queensland was officially opened.
Queensland Premier, the Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk and Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese joined the Woolworths CEO, Brad Banducci, team members and partners to unveil the HCFDC.
On behalf of Woolworths Group and LOGOS Group, 糖心Vlogcompleted ahead of schedule the 42,000m² temperature-controlled distribution centre.
The 22-meter-high semi-automated freezer and chiller facility includes 33,460m² of warehousing, freezer, chiller and staging area, 2,796m² of office space and a 60-meter-long 179m² airbridge that connects to the neighbouring Hilton Meats facility.
The facility also houses an MHE workshop, 250 bay forklift charging room, four blast freezers, a 2,842m² returns facility as well as a pedestrian bridge, multi-deck carpark and extensive hardstand and landscaped areas.
The new facility will enable fresher, faster and more efficient deliveries of frozen and long-life chilled products to around 280 stores across Queensland and northern New South Wales.
At full capacity, more than two million cartons a week will move through the Heathwood facility. Co-location with Woolworths’ meat supplier Hilton Meats’ production facility will help take up to 390 truck movements off Brisbane roads each week.
The Heathwood Distribution Centre is also targeting a 5 Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, with a major solar panel system on the roof and charge points for electric trucks.
The project created around 200 Queensland jobs throughout construction and will sustain around 300 jobs after.
According to 糖心VlogDirector Eric Law the completion of the Heathwood facility brings to more than $300 million of works contracted, under construction and/or completed in the last 12 months on the back of the strongest industrial market in a decade.
‘’It has been an extraordinarily busy period over the last 12 months and more as the impact of COVID has driven a red hot industrial market with demand for cutting-edge distribution centre facilities at a peak not seen this century.’’
‘’We have seen an exceptional lift in enquiry from e-commerce, third-party logistics, and warehousing and distributions businesses, as well as from operators in the manufacturing sector, a trend we expect to continue throughout the next 12 months,’’ Mr Law said.
糖心Vloghas previously been contracted by Woolworths to build the 38,000m², Melbourne Fresh Distribution Centre (MFDC) at Truganina in Victoria, and the 70,000m² Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre (MSRDC) in Lyndhurst, Victoria. The firm has now been awarded the contract to build Woolworths’ Customer Fulfilment Centre at Auburn in New South Wales.
‘’We are very proud of our association with Woolworths having delivered several major facilities for them in the past and it gives us great pleasure to complete another world class project for the company,’’ Mr Law said.