Global German-headquartered business DHL has 41 robots working inside its new temperature-controlled $90 million medicine and healthcare products distribution centre at Auckland Airport’s The Landing business park in Māngere.
Javier Bilbao, CEO of DHL Supply Chain Asia Pacific, said the robots are in the 14,100sq m warehouse at 15 Te Kapua Dr.
Two different types are at work:
The aim is to reduce manual handling risk, perform heavy lifting and take over repetitive or boring work.
The RS-11 Robots handle vertical storage and retrieval of totes from storage rows.
The P40s carry the totes retrieved by the RS-11 and bring them to an operator at a picking station.
This happens at both the inbound and outbound sides of the warehouse
Auckland-based industrial automation consultancy Automate-X installed the machines, he said.
Automate-X also trained DHL staff on how to manage the robot’s calibration and maintenance.
Bilbao said the building would help cater to the rising demand for critical healthcare and pharmaceutical supplies in New Zealand.
The warehouse would also boost DHL’s health warehouse capacity by 20% and has been developed on land owned by the airport.
Critical, life-saving pharmaceuticals would get to patients and consumers faster and easier in New Zealand, he said.
DHL’s decade-long lease of the building from the airport started in June. Its first customers visited the warehouse from August. About 80 staff will work there by the end of this year, Bilbao said.
DHL has been moving customers from its other sites, although today is the building’s formal opening with Bilbao in Auckland.
Goods will go directly to pharmacies via the new robot-operated system instead of to other distribution centres.
Having robots will also allow smaller consignments to be picked, packed and distributed, DHL said.
Storage has been created for 12,000 pallets, stored in very narrow aisles to maximise space.
Controlled temperature environments vary from -30C to 8C.
Bilbao said DHL has 11 New Zealand warehouses and six transport hubs.
Macrennie Construction built the new warehouse.
DHL Holdings (New Zealand) reported $490m revenue for the year to December 31, 2024 (previously $522m). It made $19.5m net profit after tax (previously $25.8m).
Its headquarters here are at 7-9 Niall Burgess Rd, Mt Wellington.
Near the new DHL warehouse is Foodstuffs North Island’s 75,500sq m ambient distribution centre and its new head office, all designed by Monk Mackenzie.
The distribution centre where 350 people work stands beside the new 9000sq m headquarters or support office where around 950 people work on the same site at 35 The Landing Dr.
Monk Mackenzie designed the new HQ, explaining how it was “conceived conceptually as an elegant structure that emerges from the surrounding landscape”.
“Constructed earth bunds at both ends of the building rise to meet a concrete roof that arcs across the building’s 100m length.
“This singular gesture emphasises the co-operative grocer’s connections with the land and the movement from garden to table - a movement from the rawness of the landscape to the crafted interior,” those architects said.
Not far away is Ikea’s new warehouse, part of the $407m million investment by the Swedish business, which on December 4 will open its debut New Zealand store at Sylvia Park.
The 20,000sq m building, built and owned by Auckland Airport, is for the retailer’s products to be stored locally for national distribution via the new Sylvia Park store.
Completion of the first Ikea New Zealand external warehouse marked a pivotal milestone in that company’s market entry here.
Many parts of the business were now working together.
New Zealanders will be able to buy products from the day the first store beside Sylvia Park opens.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.