Costs are climbing, workers are harder to find, and global supply chains are being redrawn. For Australian FMCG businesses, the question is no longer whether to act, it is how quickly. With Cemat Australia 2026 less than a month away, the answers are closer than you think.
What FMCG businesses should see at Cemat Australia 2026
For FMCG businesses, the value of Cemat Australia 2026 is not just seeing new technology on display. It is the chance to connect directly with suppliers already supporting food, grocery and consumer goods operations across Australia.
Swisslog will be on the show floor and is also hosting an exclusive site tour of the Mondelez Australia national distribution centre in Truganina. Dematic, Cemat Australia’s Event Partner, will be showcasing end-to-end automated fulfilment solutions used across warehouse and distribution environments. Slimstock will be demonstrating how FMCG businesses can improve inventory optimisation, demand planning and working capital without simply adding more headcount.
Together, these exhibitors give FMCG visitors a practical view of how automation, fulfilment and inventory planning are being applied inside modern supply chain operations.
These are not future concepts. They are solutions already operating inside Australian food, grocery and consumer goods businesses, and Cemat Australia gives visitors direct access to the people behind them.
Step inside Mondelez Australia’s automated national distribution centre
The standout experience at this year’s show is an exclusive guided site tour of the Mondelez Australia national distribution centre, home to Cadbury, Oreo, The Natural Confectionery Company, and more. Built as part of a $130 million upgrade and powered by Swisslog automation, this is the first national DC Mondelez has operated in Australia, and one of the most advanced automated FMCG warehouses in the country.
The numbers behind the facility give a sense of its scale:
- 11 Vectura vertical stacker cranes, each standing 32 metres tall.
- 56,100 pallet locations managed by the ASRS across 85,000 total on-site.
- 218 inbound and 255 outbound pallets processed per hour.
- Powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity with approximately 1MW of on-site solar.
- Five Green Star Design Rating from the Green Building Council Australia.
Critically, this is Mondelez’s biggest in-house automated warehouse globally, run directly by the company, not a 3PL. The Swisslog SynQ platform manages the entire operation as a single system: Warehouse Management, Warehouse Execution, and Automation Control. For any FMCG operator thinking seriously about automation investment, seeing this facility in production is a rare and genuinely useful reference point. Places are limited and must be booked separately. Secure your place at cemat.com.au.
Why the timing matters
The margin pressures driving these investments are well understood by anyone working in Australian FMCG right now with rising input costs, a labour market that cannot reliably fill DC and manufacturing floor roles, geopolitical disruption to supplier networks, and Scope 3 emissions reporting now a live compliance obligation for larger operators. What is less well understood is how quickly the solutions have matured.
Australian manufacturing firms reported a 22 per cent reduction in inventory holding costs after implementing AI-driven demand planning platforms in 2025. According to Deloitte’s 2025 manufacturing outlook, 46 per cent of manufacturers now rank process automation as a top two investment priority. The businesses moving on this now are not early adopters but rather they are the ones avoiding a growing cost disadvantage.
Find the full picture at Cemat Australia 2026
Cemat Australia 2026 runs June 23–25 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, bringing together Australia’s most comprehensive showcase of intralogistics, warehousing, automation, and supply chain technology. Alongside Swisslog, Dematic, and Slimstock, visitors will find autonomous mobile robots, goods-to-person picking systems, conveyor and sortation technology, cold chain solutions, and the WMS platforms that connect them all.
Registration is free. With less than a month to go, now is the time to plan your visit and book your Mondelez site tour before places fill. Find out more and at cemat.com.au.
