Diageo produces more than 6.5 billion litres across all of its brands, of which Bundaberg rum, Johnnie Walker whiskey, Baileys Irish liqueur, Captain Morgan, Bulleit whiskey, Tanqueray gin, J&B, Guinness and Ketel One vodka, are some. It operates more than 100 sites in 30 countries.
And it controls all the process of its brands – Diageo is responsible for the distilling, brewing, bottling, packaging and distribution of its brands. In Australia, Diageo owns production, distillation and distribution companies and in New Zealand it operates through third-party distributors. It is Australia’s leading spirits producer, and it has just added a new, state-of-the-art, 26,000 pallet capacity warehouse at its bottling facility in Sydney’s western suburbs.
Diageo’s global head of supply, David Cutter, officially opened the Huntingwood warehouse on 18 March. This was the culmination of a 20 months project that represented a $21.5 million by Diageo. Project suppliers, Paperless Warehouse Management Systems, Dematic and Vaughan Construction attended the opening.
The warehouse, which sits beside Diageo Australia’s primary manufacturing site in Huntingwood, has the capacity to store 26,000 pallets of Diageo’s products – the equivalent of 22 million bottles of Australian favourite, Bundaberg Rum.
The warehouse build, which commenced in May 2014, includes state-of-the-art features across a smaller than average footprint of 5,000m2, which was achieved by implementing 30 metre high Colby pallet racking from partner Dematic.
The warehouse system also features six new Dematic RapidStore 1224 Storage Retrieval Machines (SRMs) and pallet conveyors, as well as a new paperless warehouse management system.
Diageo Australia supply director, Joe Russo, noted that the investment in the warehouse will deliver considerable cost savings to Diageo and cements Diageo’s commitment to manufacturing in Australia in the long term.
“Every year Diageo Australia produces close to 100 million litres of our world famous brands in Australia, where we’ve been manufacturing for 22 years this year. While the tax environment in Australia sometimes makes it difficult to compete on a level playing field, we are committed to investing in our supply footprint for as long as it is sustainable to do so,” added Russo.
Prior to building the new warehouse, Diageo stored most of its inventory at a third party facility. With the new warehouse now on its doorstep, Diageo Australia will reduce its carbon emissions by 110 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually – the equivalent of taking 35 standard passenger vehicles off the road every year.
This carbon reduction will contribute to Diageo’s 2020 target of reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions from direct operations by 50%, plus 30% across its total supply chain.
David Cutter explained that Diageo’s recently announced 2020 sustainability and responsibility targets reflect the need to better manage water stewardship and carbon emissions across Diageo’s total supply chain.
“This forward thinking, holistic approach to sustainability means that we will work even harder with suppliers globally to decouple the growth of our business from our impact on the environment. The process efficiencies and reduction in carbon emissions achieved through this new site is one of many steps we are taking here in Australia to meet this ambitious global goal.”
