The Reject Shop, Australia’s largest discount variety brand with 196 stores across the country, has opened its new Queensland distribution centre.
The centre, which has now successfully completed a commissioning phase, has the capacity to service 200 stores. It was completed on time and on budget having commenced construction in March 2009.
“Queensland is a central plank of our growth strategy and our investment of more than $16 million establishing our Ipswich distribution centre is the cornerstone of our future growth and investment in this state,” said managing director Chris Bryce.
“We are committed to expanding our Queensland store network in response to strong demand from Queenslanders who have found The Reject Shop is an excellent place to save money, evidenced by the strong performance of all our stores in this state.
“Ipswich was the logical location for our new distribution centre because of its strong labour market and strategic location on road networks, providing us the opportunity to service stores from metropolitan Sydney through to Queensland.
“We expect the number of people employed at our Ipswich centre to grow to 150 as the number of stores serviced grows from an initial 90 stores to 200 stores over the coming years. With our growth plans for Queensland we hope to create additional career opportunities for more than 1500 Queenslanders within our new stores.”
The Reject Shop plans to eventually quadruple its presence in Queensland as part of its long term growth target of 400 stores nationally.