Catch.com.au set to establish Sydney warehouse to meet e-commerce demand

Online marketplace Catch.com.au has announced plans to expand its fulfilment network with the commissioning of a new centre to meet increased demand.

Catch’s managing director Pete Sauerborn.
catch.com.au

The new fulfilment centre will sit in Sydney’s Moorebank Logistics Park on a 36,000 sqm plot.

The expansion of the fulfilment network comes as Catch reported $1 billion in gross transaction value following a mass surge of online spending in 2020.

It is the first fulfilment centre to be established outside of Victoria for the Wesfarmers-owned company and the third in total.

The warehouse is expected to provide additional job opportunities in the fields of advanced manufacturing, robotics and intelligent systems.

The facility will advance the company’s investment in automation fulfilment with Catch’s managing director Pete Sauerborn stating the centre will improve delivery times.

“The Moorebank fulfilment centre will be our most technologically sophisticated centre to date,” Sauerborn said.

A Catch spokesperson told iTnews the new fulfillment centre will feature a brand new warehouse management system (WMS), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for goods to person picking.

The centre will also include automating packing machines that minimise waste in packing and transportation and increase labour efficiency. 

The centre is scheduled to open in early 2022 and will provide 120 jobs between construction and operation.

The new centre is part of the company's plan to increase fulfilment options as roughly 45 percent of sales come through the Catch app. 

Speaking at the Wesfarmers strategy day, Sauerborn said Catch has been investing in building infrastructure and capabilities necessary to support future growth ambitions.

“The online retail penetration continues to grow and we expect marketplace business models to grow even faster than the overall segment,” Sauerborn said.

“Our plan is to aggressively grow share in this expanding market through three key levers: acquiring new customers and increasing the frequency of existing customers, expanding into new categories ranges and brands and making shopping easier by reducing customer friction points.”

Already Catch has increased its use of automation to broaden capacity in a 62,000 sqm fulfilment centre in Melbourne.