The Australian retail and wholesale footwear giant has commenced operations at its newly constructed 26,000 square metre warehouse, equipped with innovative robotic technology.
Exactly twelve months after breaking ground, Munro Footwear Group (MFG) received the keys to its new facility, Tread Shed, from Qanstruct, the construction company responsible for its construction.
Munro Footwear Group is Australasia’s largest privately-owned footwear company, operating retail banners that include Williams, Midas, Mathers and Styletread. The company is also home to an extensive portfolio of trusted wholesale footwear brands such as Mollini, Django & Juliette, Colorado, Ziera, and Diana Ferrari.
The launch of the state-of-the-art facility, named Tread Shed, coincides with Marcus Bartlett stepping into his new role as Co-CEO alongside Jay Munro. Bartlett has spearheaded a comprehensive transformation agenda at MFG to streamline operations and deliver retail excellence. The completion of Tread Shed marks a significant milestone in this agenda, which Bartlett will continue driving in his new role.
“It has been an immense undertaking but one that will place MFG in the best position to meet the changing needs of our customers and enables us to elevate customer experiences across a competitive omnichannel environment.”
Tread Shed represents MFG’s strategic effort to consolidate its two existing distribution centres into a single, purpose-built facility. The operations will be underpinned by an Autonomous Mobile Robotic (AMR) solution, optimising all steps of the company’s fulfilment function from inbound stock and inventory management through to picking and packing. To support continued growth and future omnichannel and retail footprint expansion, MFG engaged Priority Integrated Systems in implementing the AMR solution.
MFG also partnered with supply chain and property consultancy firm TMX to review its supply chain network, design its operations alongside the ARM solution, and project-manage the development of the new facility. “To set a foundation for immediate success and provide future flexibility, we knew we needed a specialised solution,” said Bartlett. “It was essential to leverage vendors with expertise in supply chain technology while exceeding safety and green-workplace standards for our Tread Shed team members.”
MFG’s appetite to scale up operations is due to its continued success, with 11 eCommerce sites and 260-plus physical stores delivering significant growth. With Tread Shed now operational, the company has its eye firmly focused on its next transformation agenda initiative – deploying a mobile point-of-sale to replace its legacy POS (Point of Sale).
Bartlett stated, “The next 12 months will be integral for our business. We have initiatives that are essential to enhancing experiences for our customers, as well as programs to support employee engagement and retention. The next step in our multi-year growth plan is to mirror the efficiencies we are seeing from Tread Shed in our stores.”
Watch the AMR system in action.
Author: Munro Footwear Group