Super Retail Group has spent $63 million on the construction of a new automated distribution centre and other technology initiatives.
The retailer, home to brands Supercheap Auto, Macpac and Rebel, spent almost half of its $134.9 million capital expenditure [pdf] for FY24 on the warehouse, alongside a host of digital and customer-focused programs.
These included omni-retailing capabilities, data, cyber security, networking, a Supercheap “auto capability” and customer loyalty.
In its annual results for FY24, Super Retail Group revealed the warehouse’s delivery “is well underway”, with the transition to the new facility expected to begin in FY26.
The remainder of Super Retail Group’s capex, meanwhile, was pooled into its bricks-and-mortar stores.
Overall, the group’s capital expenditure increased by 24 percent from 2023. Non-store-related capex increased by 8.3 percent.
In its annual results, the group said it had invested in a number of in-store technology modernisations: rolling out handheld mobile devices, uplifting wireless network capabilities and improving its back-of-house and point-of-sale systems plus an ongoing refresh of registers.
Super Retail Group has been investing in its omni-retailing capabilities — a single retailing platform serving all its brands — since 2018.
Last year, the group announced a major overhaul of its supply chain management, investing in Körber’s warehouse management system and several other solutions to streamline its processes.
The capabilities resulted in reduced operating expenditure through the culling of two distribution centres picked up from the group’s 2018 Macpac acquisition.
Super Retail closed off the year with a net-profit-after-tax of $240 million, a reduction of nine percent from FY23.