Briscoe's automated warehouse: what its first pick rates show

Briscoe Group's new Drury distribution centre averaged about 237 picks an hour in its first weeks against a 300 target, and one operating period reached 446. The figures appeared on 6 November in coverage of the supply chain overhaul that the Rebel Sport and Briscoes Homeware owner ran with consultancy Argon & Co. NZ firms rarely see early numbers from warehouse automation at this scale. We think the order Briscoe did the work in will be more useful to most of them than the headline rate.

What happened

Briscoe started with no dedicated warehouse management system. Staff picked from paper, and a basic SAP bolt-on handled distribution and warehousing. The Manhattan Associates WMS then went in over two years and three phases: deployment in the existing warehouse, a manual go-live, and finally fully automated operation.

The Drury site adds a KNAPP shuttle system with 30,000 totes and four goods-to-person workstations, and pallet positions have risen from about 4,000 to 15,000. Larger items stay on conventional pallet systems, and KNAPP's 2025 announcement expected staff numbers to grow from 45 to around 100 over time. RNZ reported about $120 million of investment in October 2024, with about $20 million already spent on the WMS.

Reading the numbers

The early average of 237 is 79% of the 300 target. The 446 peak is almost 50% above target, but it covers one operating period. Neither the length of that period nor the measurement method has been published, and we haven't seen independent verification. A peak shows what the equipment can do under some conditions, while the 237 average is closer to what a finance team should plan around during start-up.

Briscoe's own reporting adds useful context. Its half-year result on 16 September said the centre was operational, with throughput above the old site. The same result said, "Our immediate priority is to complete the commissioning and then progressively optimise the automation systems." An August trading update put full commissioning by the end of the financial year, which points to about January 2027 given a half-year ending 26 July. Reseller News describes the transformation as complete, but we haven't seen a published date for finishing commissioning.

The costs are also visible. The first half carried $1.9 million of additional operating costs for the centre and $28.1 million of the half's $31.9 million capital spending. A $2.0 million lease benefit from leaving the old site partly offset the operating costs. Briscoe gave no quantified savings or date for them, saying only that benefits should become increasingly visible as optimisation advances.

The stock figures need the same care, because the 57% and 67% store inventory reductions for Briscoes Homeware and Rebel Sport are targets. iTWire ties Rebel Sport's figure to a move from 18 to six weeks of store cover, with four more weeks held at the distribution centre. Stores would lose 12 weeks of cover and Drury would gain four, so the net cut is eight weeks. A third of the store reduction is stock changing address.

Imported stock turns are projected to improve by about 20%, from 2.49 to 3.0, which is a smaller figure measured on a different base. Total inventory at the half-year was $104.8 million, $1.2 million below the prior year, and Briscoe attributed the change to seasonal stock, ageing and availability management. On published figures, the new centre hasn't yet been credited with any inventory reduction.

Why it matters for NZ firms

Most NZ businesses won't spend $100 million on a shed, but the sequencing scales down. Briscoe put process and data control in place at the old site, then ran the new building manually, and only then added automation. Ragtrader reported in April that manual operations would start at Drury that month, with final automation installation targeted for September. Staff got to learn the software before the machinery arrived, and a fault could be traced to one change at a time. A firm that buys robots while still picking from paper would be debugging its process and its equipment at once.

The hardest part was software. Argon & Co partner Jeff Triantafilo named the SAP integration as the biggest challenge, because the knock-on effects of joining data sources weren't always clear. Thorough functional and user acceptance testing resolved the problem. Briscoe is also upgrading to SAP S/4HANA, at a one-off cost of $0.9 million in the half. Briscoe hasn't said how the two projects interact, but we'd expect any warehouse integration to need retesting after an ERP upgrade of that size.

The labour case runs against the usual assumption. Headcount at Drury was expected to more than double, and the facility was never meant to be fully automated. Current staffing hasn't been reported. A business case resting mainly on removing warehouse wages wouldn't match Briscoe's plan, which rests on stock positioning, replenishment and store space. The half-year result links lower in-store storage to the Panmure sublease to Chemist Warehouse, a property benefit that a warehouse-only model would miss.

Next steps

• Record your current picks per hour by item type and shift before changing anything. Agree with the supplier how the target will be measured, over what period, and on which product mix.
• If you're still picking from paper or an ERP add-on, treat warehouse software as the first project and run it in your existing building. Our process and automation team can help map that work.
• List every data flow between your warehouse system and your ERP, then test each one with real transactions. Include any ERP upgrade in the same plan so integrations don't get tested twice in isolation.
• Budget for months below target. Briscoe's start-up costs and its staged commissioning show the run-in period belongs in the financial model, with extra operating cost before savings arrive.
• Separate stock removed from stock moved in your business case, and count freed store or floor space as its own line.
• If you're attending Logistics Automation New Zealand at the Auckland Showgrounds on 10 and 11 November, ask exhibitors for start-up performance curves from comparable sites, including how they measured them.