Woolworths says hundreds of new jobs will be up for grabs after revealing it would construct a new distribution centre in NSW.
In a statement on Wednesday, the supermarket giant announced a new $400m distribution centre would be built in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park, which will take over the Minchinbury site, scheduled to close in the 2024 financial year.
The new fresh food and distribution centre will support 700 ongoing roles and 500 jobs in the construction phase.
Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci said the new centre supports the group’s supply chain network in the state and would look at redeployment opportunities for staff set to lose jobs at the closing down Michinbury site.
The Michinbury site supports 330 jobs within the company.
“We will explore redeployment opportunities wherever possible, and provide a wide range of support and career transition services in the lead up to site closure,” Mr Banducci said.
“This includes leveraging the Woolworths group Future of Work Fund to equip our team members with new skills and capabilities to be used within or outside of the Group.”
In the same statement lodged to Australian Securities Exchange, Woolworths also announced a number of significant items are set to impact its financial results for the current financial year.
Its intended demerger of Endeavour Drinks from the group’s portfolio and the acquisition of PFD food services is anticipated to cost Woolworths $69m in associated transaction costs.
It also noted a devaluation in its metro store network which is still experiencing slumped sales due to less people visiting CBD locations around the country.
“We remain very committed to our convenient Metro Food Stores, having refined our smaller format and range over a number of years,” Mr Banducci said.
“However, the changing customer work and shopping patterns we have seen over the last 15 months have negatively impacted some of our stores, particularly in CBD and transit locations, resulting in the impairment announced.”
The total impairment expense from the fall in value of its metro network is $50m, while supply redundancy costs have hit the group by $44m.
It is understood Woolworths has no intention of shutting down any metro stores, but is shifting its investment into its suburban network.
Losses incurred have been partly offset by the $220m gain in equity from its acquisition of Quantium on May 31.
The impacts from significant items for the 2021 financial year are expected to have a net gain of $57m before tax.
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