A new 3,000 square metre logistics hub and warehouse has been opened by Australian Defence Apparel’s New Zealand (ADA NZ) subsidiary in Palmerston North on 3 October.
The new facility is designed to support company operations and deliver on the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Wearables Supply and Managed Services contact, which ADA NZ won in November 2021.
The ten-year contract worth approximately NZ$250 million went live in February 2022 under which ADA will supply clothing, boots and load carriage equipment across the 12,000 service personnel of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), NZ Army and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).
The contract includes two three years options to follow that could increase the value of the contract to NZ$400 million if exercised. The opening of the new facility was delayed from November 2022 due to COVID-19 related supply chain pressures, but it will allow ADA NZ to complete the move out of the Ezibuy International Distribution Centre and TSB office buildings nearby and streamline the rapid delivery of clothing to NZDF bases around the country through its own purpose-built centre.
Chris Dixon, CEO of ADA Group told ADM that the contract is three tiered: “Improving the supply chain, speeding up access to goods and improving defence infrastructure including a new facility in Palmerston North, this was all part of the ADA NZ offer,” he said.
ADA took over the contract from previous providers Workwear Group, which had been the NZDF supplier since 2008 and with no further renewal options available, the Wearables Supply and Managed Services contract had to go to market.
“What we were looking for this time around was a supplier that specialised in military apparel and wearable and a design and development capability, which will really keep us at the forefront of technology from a wearables perspective,” Tony McQuillan, Director Defence Equipment Management Organisation told ADM.
The facility also hosts staff with physiological/human factors and ergonomics expertise that are supported by 30 designers, coordinators and R&D specialists with the parent company in Australia to work on the future manufacturing of new clothing and equipment specific to NZDF requirements and to introduce new technology.
Sarah Pender, ADA NZ Project Director said the NZDF has launched a new NZ Army pack project for load carriage that will be integrated into the existing clothing and platforms. It will include the development of different variants including a medium assault pack and a field pack among other items.
“The NZDF came to the ADA team for this because this is something the company does for the Australian Defence Force,” Pender said, “The previous supplier was purely a clothing supplier but not a whole systems supplier.”
Some 2,000 different items will be sourced from local and international suppliers and sent to the facility where they will be stored ready for distribution. The warehouse has large numbers of storage racks and pick and pack areas. It contains all manner of wearables from clothing to boots, gloves, packs, water bottles, and socks.
According to Kate Moloney, ADA NZ contract manager, the new warehouse not only allows the co-locating of items, such as shoes of different sizes, on the floor area in one location but also co-locates the whole team in one building. “It is trying to think smarter and make it work better in the warehouse,” she told ADM, “Ultimately it means we can deliver a better product and get it out the door faster and get it to the service personnel on time.”
Moloney explained that the contract Key Performance Indicator is to deliver new clothing held in storage to a NZDF base within five working days following an order being placed. Other niche, non-stocked items may take longer as they won’t be held readily.
ADA NZ has re-established supplier relationships with local firms including Manawatu Knitting Mills, Outback Trading, Academy Apparel, Black and Co, Norsewear NZ Ltd, and Robert Embroidery. These companies will hold their own stocks as well as deliver large orders for the ADA NZ warehouse providing a deeper supply pool to draw on to manage peaks and troughs of orders over the long-term.
“Supply chain resilience is really important to NZDF so if they need to deploy urgently, we can access stock really quickly,” Pender said.
ADA NZ is also modernising nine clothing stores at NZDF bases around New Zealand to standardise those facilities and ensure the speedy supply of apparel. There are 28 ADA NZ staff across the nine stores and another 20-30 at the Palmerston North facility, many of whom are former NZDF service and Workwear personnel that transitioned across to ADA NZ.
McQuillan said that upgrades to clothing stores on NZDF bases offered by ADA NZ as a way of providing a modern user-friendly experience to the NZDF soldiers, sailors and airmen. “It was certainly a value add that put ADA at the top of the pile when we went to market,” he said.
The latest renovation includes a clothing store at NZ Army Base Trentham in Upper Hutt, which opened on 26 September. The location of the facility at Palmerston North was chosen because of the centrality of its location in New Zealand’s north island and its proximity to key NZDF bases. Base Linton, RNZAF Base Ohakea, Wairou Military Camp, and Base Trentham are all relatively close by.
“The continuity of people at the stores was really helpful because the systems within the stores remained unchanged and they could carry on in the foreground,” Dixon said.