Extra space to accommodate parts has been created as part of Toyota New Zealand’s latest warehouse expansion in Palmerston North.
It was officially opened last week with dignitaries, local neighbours and the local school in attendance.
The existing warehouse space has been expanded from 24,000 square metres to 35,000 sqm, with the project budget topping $20 million.
“A lot of New Zealanders rely on us to keep their cars on the road,” says Spencer Morris, Toyota New Zealand general manager of finance, planning and after sales.
“We carry around $28 million of inventory, which is quite space hungry when you think about the huge variety of large items, such as bumpers, headlights and sheet metal, that we are required to stock.”
The next phase sees attention now shift to optimising more than four rugby fields of available floor space, with newly designed inbound/outbound areas to improve work flow and safety.
Following this a complete re-layout of the storage area will commence, which is expected to take around 18 months to complete.
At the same time seismic strengthening work will be conducted to bring the older parts of the building structure up to the latest building standards.
This was the third warehouse expansion project Toyota New Zealand have undertaken in the last 15 years, and reflects the sustained growth in parts demand on the back of record new and used vehicle sales during this time, Morris says.
“This expansion allows us to supply more than 95% of daily orders off the shelf. These are shipped overnight to our network of 66 dealers around the country,” says Morris.
The warehouse now employs more than 40 people, an increase of more than 30% over the last 10 years and a further reflection of the growth of the business.
