Landmark Group opens Dh1bn Dubai distribution centre

The centre will be capable of handling 300 million items a year

A linear sorting device in action at Landmark Group's new Dh1bn Mega Distribution Centre at Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai. Courtesy Landmark Group

Retailer Landmark Group has opened a new, Dh1 billion fully-automated 'Mega Distribution Centre' at Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai.

The company behind the eMax, Centrepoint, Home Centre and Babyshop brands, has said the new distribution centre is a 43 metre, high-bay warehouse capable of handling 300 million items a year. It has the capacity to house up to 2.2 million cartons and 250,000 garments on hangars, and will handle them using 1,300 'robotic multi shuttles' 94 lifts and 28 workstations.

“The opening of Mega DC marks a huge milestone for Landmark Group," said the company's chairwoman and chief executive, Renuka Jagtiani.

"We are very proud to have built this fully-automated facility, which will serve our customers even better by ensuring speed and agility of operations but will also project the future of supply chain for our region.”

Landmark Group was set up by founder-chairman Micky Jagtiani in 1973 when from a single store in Bahrain. Its headquarters moved to Dubai in 1990 and the company now operates more than 2,300 outlets across 22 countries in the Middle East, Africa and India. It employs more than 55,000 staff.

Landmark Group's automated distribution centre's "adoption of technological tools like artificial intelligence, big data, IoT, robotics and automation to drive logistics solutions is in step with what we do at DP World," said the chairman of Dubai's ports operator and of the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority, Sultan Bin Sulayem.

"Customers are looking for speed, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness. A new approach is necessary to meet their demands along the supply chain. We believe Landmark Group is innovating to enable smarter trade," he added.

The centre will have a shuttle system for handling cartons and tote banks with 'inter-aisle transfer technology', Landmark Group said in a statement.

It also has an automatic storage and retrieval system capable of storing more than 36,000 pallet positions, serviced by 41-metre tower cranes.

About half of the centre's power requirements will be met through an 8.2 megawatt array of rooftop solar panels, the largest of its kind in the region.