Welcome to our customer edition. Several of our customer relationships date back to the 1960s and 1970s. This is no coincidence. Our path to success has been built on a commitment to a simple promise: when a customer chooses Linfox they can be confident that we will always deliver.
In recent years, we have demonstrated our commitment to forming deep, strategic customer partnerships through our significant investment in property and infrastructure to support their business growth and deliver win-win outcomes.
We are now seeing the tangible outcomes of these projects, with operations going live at BevChain’s beverages distribution centre in Maddington, Western Australia and our Adelaide rail freight terminal facility, located next to the city’s interstate rail line.
In Victoria, our new 70,000 square-metre BevChain distribution centre in Laverton is progressing well with an operational go-live scheduled for early 2024. In neighbouring Laverton North, we successfully secured a multiuser facility which will double our cold chain capability in Victoria.
Our sustainability journey continues
Linfox is well into our sustainability journey. We pledged our commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 and we continue to invest in electric fleet, creating sustainable warehouses, and moving freight to rail.
In a Linfox first, our Willawong site in Queensland has been awarded carbon neutral certification by Climate Active. We accomplished this through a combination of solar energy, battery technology, electric forklifts and recycling diversion.
I welcome the recent commitments by the Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian governments to broaden the road network for low and zero emission heavy vehicles.
The decision is a win for the adoption of electric vehicles and Linfox’s efforts to transition our fleet. We encourage other state governments to follow suit as we work towards a unified approach to access route maps and decarbonisation policies across Australia.
Eighty-five per cent of Linfox’s carbon footprint comes from diesel fuel consumption so the biggest impact we can make is the conversion of our fleet to low or zero emission vehicles and moving our freight onto rail. Australia’s rail system is being transformed. With an estimated $155 billion of public funds being invested over the next 15 years to expand and modernise Australia’s rail networks.
According to the National Rail Action Plan, rail is set to move more passengers and larger volumes of freight than any other mode across Australia’s major cities and freight routes.
Our newly opened Adelaide Freight Terminal facility, connected to the city’s interstate rail line, supports Pacific National and Aurizon services.
The site sees up to 450 shipping containers per week move through the connecting cargo link, removing an entire local transport leg.
Linfox is investing strategically to capitalise on these investments and ensure we’re ready to take advantage of emerging rail opportunities.
Image: SA Premier, Hon Peter Malinauskas officially opens the new Adelaide facility.
Linfox International Group embraces new technologies
Linfox Thailand is exploring the adoption of autonomous drones in its operations, with initial trials yielding promising results. Autonomous drones can be used inside warehouses for inventory management, to assist with repetitive, labour intensive inventory management tasks including inventory audits, stock taking, cycle counting and item searches.
To conduct the trials, Linfox International Group is partnering with Fling, an award-winning startup and recipient of the National Innovation Award. I look forward to updating you on the results of the trial in the next edition.
I was delighted to join Chair of the Board of Boon Rawd Supply Chain Co., Ltd, Mr. Piti Bhirombhakdi, the Australian Ambassador to Thailand, Dr Angela Macdonald PSM and BevChain Managing Director Drew Franklin at the opening of BevChain’s first distribution centre in Thailand recently.
The purpose-built warehouse in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, is strategically located near key freight corridors and will support Thai brewer Boon Rawd’s growing business. The project was informed by an extensive network optimisation study into Boon Rawd’s distribution network by Linfox and BevChain and is a significant milestone for our BevChain business in Thailand.
Securing the future of cash
In September, Armaguard reached a significant milestone in its work to secure the future of cash, with the legal completion of the merger between Armaguard and Prosegur’s Australian operations.
The initial phase of the Armaguard and Prosegur site integration occurred in October 2023, and additional integrations are planned for the first quarter of 2024. We anticipate the entire integration process to be finalised by the middle of next year.
In October, the Avalon Airport Industrial Precinct welcomed Australia Post with the opening of a state‑of‑the-art parcel facility. The 23,000 square-metre facility is expected to process a staggering 40,000 parcels per day, with a surge capacity of up to 60,000 parcels per day. This marks a crucial milestone in the longstanding strategic partnership between Linfox and Australia Post, which dates back to the mid-1990s.
Finally, I wish you all a joyous festive season and all the best for the new year 2024. Stay safe.