Ground Breaking…

In the culmination of plenty of planning & hard-work, Friday 5th August saw Specialty Fashion Group & Toll Group announce the start of their partnership in constructing a new state-of-the-art distribution centre in Sydney’s South-West.

LEFT TO RIGHT: John Sidoti MP, Member for Drummoyne, Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, Transport, Industry, Resources and Energy; Brian Kruger, Managing Director, Toll Group; Gary Perlstein, CEO, Speciality Fashion Group; John Marsh, Managing Director, Logos; Ned Mannoun, Mayor of the City of Liverpool.

A core part of the SFG Logistics five-year plan, the new 32,000 square meter facility will be at the cutting edge of logistical solutions for Omni-channel retail in Australia.

Moving from a largely manual facility in Homebush to one with advanced automation and an additional 14,000 sqm space will capitalise on speed of pick & pack, improved inventory, throughput volume and other enhanced capability to meet the change in customer demands as digitalisation moves to the forefront of retail business strategy.

SFG currently handles over 300,000 units per week of replenishment and online units which are sent out to the stores network or individual customers. The new warehouse will double that capacity, with the further potential to increase to over 1 million units per week. We have worked closely with Toll, over the design phase to create a facility that focuses on efficiencies such as store product sequencing, auto e-commerce bagging, and automatic carton optimisation.

To celebrate the partnership of this innovative new distribution centre and start of the build a soil turning ceremony took place on site, in Prestons last Friday, attended by key Toll executives and our own CEO, Gary Perlstein along with members of the SFG Logistics team.

Tolls’ Managing Director, Brian Kruger said; "Our aim at Toll, is to connect people and products, and we look forward to working with Specialty Fashion Group to enable a fast, efficient and cost effective supply chain for its customers."

Gary Perlstein also spoke of the collaboration saying; "We have worked with Toll to create a supply chain solution that enables our Omni-channel strategy across all brands, for a streamlined and memorable customer experience."

The facility will employ over 100 warehouse operators when the final phase of the construction, by the LOGOS Group Australia, is completed in October 2017.

“I am extremely proud of what the SFG Logistics team, in partnership with Toll, have been able to plan and achieve to date on this project.” Said Alex Linton, GM of Logistics. “The next 12 months of construction & transition will be both exciting & challenging times but the end result, of being at the forefront of logistic solutions, to aid business growth, will be extremely rewarding for everyone on the project. Ultimately, the customer is at the centre of all our business decisions at SFG and the impact on the overall customer experience will be huge. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all those involved, as it is a tremendous achievement.”

The commemorative spade!

So what’s next on the horizon for the Logistics function at SFG? A focus on the expanding international operations, in particular a consolidation of the warehousing in the US, optimisation of the bonded shipping hub in China as well as importing directly to Australian domestic regional ports are all on the cards!

Well done to all those involved on this huge endeavor. A massive step forward to put SFG ahead of the game in retail and into the same arena as the big, international players.

Credit to Big Rigs