Contingency planning

Disaster contingency planning

As part of Australia's largest retail network, managing continuity is incredibly important to us.

In recent years we've had to contend with floods, the COVID pandemic, bushfires, cyclones, carrier equipment availability problems, and road and rail closures - on top of the usual spikes in volume and seasonal demand fluctuations.

While all that was going on we still had to deal with spikes in volume and seasonal demand adjustments.

To continue delivering your goods through it all requires a great deal of flexibility, forward planning, technical and practical experience, and advanced communication skills.

Here's how we plan for disasters and mitigate risk.

IT infrastructure

We can rely on numerous servers for back-up across the nation. We also have several manual procedure workarounds where you'll be able to order pickups with our scheduling team who will manage your booking and perform the back-office administration requirements.

Carrier equipment issues / road and rail closures / wet weather and cyclones / industrial action

We have pre-existing arrangements in place with an extensive number of companies that can supply additional or alternative methods of transport options. This may mean your products are delivered by an alternative carrier, a different mode, or even to a different distribution centre, depending on the nature of the event.

When faced with wet weather and cyclone disaster conditions we also work with the Coles Replenishment Team to prioritise the stock where the need is greatest.

Bushfire

We have a set of defined procedures that cover road closures, fatigue management, employee release (ADF & Emergency Services), impacts from bushfire smoke and critical incident trauma.

Pandemic

Since the beginning of COVID-19, Coles has introduced a range of measures to address areas such as panic buying, supplier closures, distribution centre closures, travel restrictions, store and support centre staff health and welfare.