AUSTRALIA: Southcorp unveils plans for $A6.5m export centre

Southcorp Wines is to open a 10,000-container, 10m-cases-a-year wine export distribution centre in Adelaide early next year.The $A6.5m will be the focus of the company's exports to Europe, North America and Asia. At 6,400m², it will also feature a paperless warehouse management system.'It will be slightly more cost efficient (than the present system) but will be of major benefit in ensuring stock accuracy and, therefore, a high level of customer service,' the company's general manager, operations, Reuben Summerell, said.'That's important particularly in areas where there is high government control.'The centre, and an adjoining container park built at a cost of about $A5m, will be next to the Port Adelaide container and rail terminals, where wine to be shipped from Melbourne can be dispatched.Summerell said that the management system, involving radio frequency scanning of stock, would direct 'pickers' to the correct stock, ensuring that the 'right stock is put in the right container'.The centre would replace the current contract distribution system, which operated from several locations, and would handle products from Southcorp's wineries at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley, Karadoc in the Sunraysia, and Great Western in Victoria.