NZ Post opens new Wellington 'super depot'

NZ Post has today opened a new "Super Depot" in Wellington as part of its 10-year "Te Iho" investment plan to meet ongoing parcel growth. Photo / Supplied

NZ Post has opened a new "super depot" in Wellington, the first automated processing hub in the lower North Island, fit with state-of-the-art sorting technology to make processing parcels faster.

NZ Post chief executive David Walsh said the company was "incredibly proud" to be opening the new depot. At over 10,000sq m, the site is bigger than a rugby field. It will process 11,000 parcels an hour.

"This is the single largest material handling investment programme within New Zealand in recent history. This investment will allow us to process parcels more efficiently and accurately through automated sortation and address reading technology," Walsh said.

Chief executive David Walsh said the company was incredibly proud to open the Wellington Super Depot today. It will allow for the processing of a greater volume of parcels. Photo / Supplied

"With all trends indicating that online shopping is here to stay, we're investing over $200 million across our network so we can increase our parcel processing capacity across the country to 190 million parcels annually by 2033."

Walsh said if parcel volumes continued growing up to 11 new automated sorting centres may be built across the country. "This gives us greater ability to scale our business to match the growth of parcels into the future and deliver great service to our customers, and their customers."

NZ Post partnered with Daifuku Oceania, which specialises in sorting systems for parcel delivery systems, airports, and manufacturing and distribution businesses, to introduce the new scanning and sorting technology.

It will give NZ Post greater visibility of where parcels are at any given time in its network.

Shirley Povey, NZ Post Wellington super depot manager, said her team were excited to work in the new space.

"Our new Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology will read labels, including handwriting, to extract the information it needs to then talk to the sorter to send parcels down the right chute. At the moment this is done manually through video coding," Povey said.

NZ Post said all building materials and appliances for the depot were selected with "sustainability in mind". Thermal insulation, products with the environmental choice tick, and on-site detention ponds and rain-water harvesting. Carpet tiles are biodegradable and appliances have a minimum 4-star energy rating.

Walsh said, "we are proud to continue to rise to the challenge of being the best delivery business for New Zealand, and the critical role NZ Post has in the recovery and growth of the New Zealand economy."