Robots ready to roll for Woolworths packing centres

WOOLWORTHS is pushing ahead with its embrace of robots, moving to install mini automated packing centres at the back of supermarkets to process online shopping orders.

The supermarket chain has signed a deal with US-based Takeoff Technologies to build “compact, automated micro fulfilment centres” at three stores. It means Woolworths will not have staff walking supermarket aisles picking and packing groceries for online orders at the stores where the technology is installed.

Woolworths chief Brad Banducci said the centres would be particularly useful in meeting growing demand for same-day delivery of online orders.

“This partnership with Takeoff will allow us to deliver ultra-convenience at a local level, with the ability to be even closer to the customer for that last-mile delivery,” he said. “It has material long-term application in our business, whether in the back of a store or as a stand-alone unit where you might just do pick-up or delivery off it.”

Both Woolworths and Coles are investing heavily in automation as they work to lower costs.

They are building huge robot-powered distribution centres but are going about filling customers’ online orders in different ways.

While Coles has hired the British automated warehouse specialist Ocado to build two centres, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, dedicated to processing online orders, Woolworths appears to be heading down a more decentralised route.