Amazon Invites Aussies Into Its Robotics Fulfilment Centre In Western Sydney For The First Time
Amazon Australia opens its doors offering free in-person tours of its Sydney robotics fulfilment centre
Keep the kids entertained these school holidays with tours taking place 4 days a week
SYDNEY – 3 April 2023 – Ever wondered how your Amazon order gets to you so fast? Amazon Australia has opened its doors to the public for the first time, and is offering free in-person tours of its robotics fulfilment centre in Western Sydney four times a week.
Launching just in time for the school holidays, in-person tours are available to people 6yrs old and over, and will run four days a week at Sydney’s Kemps Creek Fulfilment Centre - the largest warehouse ever built in Australia holding up to 20 million smaller items. Led by an expert guide, visitors will get to go behind the scenes to see how the products they order are stored, see some of the 2,000+ robotic drives in action and meet a few of the 1,500 people who help pick, pack and ship Amazon orders around Australia.
The introduction of in-person tours follows the successful launch of live virtual tours in August 2022, with over 4,000 people signing up for the online experience so far. Those who are not in Sydney will still be able to join virtual tours twice a week on Mondays and Fridays and will get a look at the Sydney fulfilment centre, as well as crossing live to sites in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.
Director of Operations at Amazon Australia, Mindy Espidio-Garcia says “Tours provide customers with an opportunity to learn how their orders are fulfilled and meet some of the team who make it happen. Australians who joined virtual tours said they found the tours insightful and had a deeper appreciation of what happens behinds the scenes of their orders. We’re excited to be able to open our doors and welcome our local community to visit in person to see some of the technology and people who make it all happen. For our talented workforce, we’re really excited to give their local community a glimpse of how the magic happens!”
The Tour Guide based at Amazon’s Sydney robotics fulfilment centre and Kemps Creek local, Joshua Dawe is looking forward to hosting not only members of the public, but also his five children on a tour of Amazon Australia’s largest site.
“I can’t wait to give Aussies the chance to experience our site in person. I think they will be blown away by the sheer size of the building and enjoy the chance to see how the robotics and our people work together to get their orders processed quickly. Most of all I’m excited for my kids to be able to see where their dad works! After all, it’s not every day that you get to see the inside of a robotics warehouse the size of 24 rugby league fields.”
In-person tours will operate 4 days a week in Kemps Creek and run for 60 – 90 minutes from 1:15pm on Mondays and Fridays, and 11:30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays – registration is essential. Tours will operate in groups of 15 pax, with kids from the age of six being able to attend with an adult. The safety of our guests is our priority, and will be asked to wear flat, closed-heel shoes and long hair must be pulled at or above shoulder length. And for any guests with hearing impairment, sign language support is available.
Australians can book an in-person tours via https://amazontours.com/au/onsite
Or for virtual tours, they can book via https://amazontours.com/na/virtual
About the Sydney Robotic Fulfilment Centre featured on the tour
The site is the largest warehouse ever built in Australia, and the first Amazon robotics fulfilment centre in the southern hemisphere. Located in Kemps Creek, it spans 200,000 square metres across four levels - around the land size of Taronga Zoo or 24 rugby league fields - and can house up to 20 million of the smaller items sold on Amazon.com.au including jewelry, books, electronics, pantry items and toys. It is Amazon’s second FC in Western Sydney (the first is in Moorebank) and has been equipped with cutting-edge technology to support the 1,500 Amazon team members who will work there. Robotic drives work collaboratively with associates by moving pods of inventory to them, reducing the time and effort that would otherwise be required for an employee to stow items for sale or pick them for new customer orders. They also save space, allowing up to 40 per cent more items to be stowed which in turn allows for increased product selection benefiting the small and medium sized businesses who use Fulfilment by Amazon to seamlessly service customers around Australia.
About Amazon Australia
Amazon Australia has more than doubled its operational footprint in 2022 with the launch of its first robotics fulfilment centre. Since 2011, Amazon has invested over A$5.3 billion in Australia across all of its businesses in Australia, with $1.9 billion in the past year. Amazon now has a local team of over 5,000 employees across amazon.com.au, Amazon Web Services, Kindle, Audible, Alexa and Prime Video.
Amazon.com.au launched in Australia in December 2017 and now offers customers 200 million products across 31 different categories including Amazon devices. The new Amazon Robotics FC located at Goodman Group’s Oakdale West Industrial Estate in Kemps Creek, Sydney opened in January 2022, complementing Amazon’s existing network of five Australian fulfilment centres launched in Dandenong South, Melbourne in December 2017, followed by Moorebank, Sydney in August 2018, Perth’s Airport Precinct in November 2019, Lytton, Brisbane in October 2020 and most recently a second site in Ravenhall, Melbourne FC in August 2021.
Since launching, more than 11,000 Australian businesses, many of which are SMBs, are now selling through Amazon, and have sold more than 25 million units across its Australian and international stores in the past year.[1]
[1] Australian businesses were identified based on the country of origin information provided by sellers to Amazon.