Unveiling a $12 million expansion, Booktopia’s Lidcombe distribution centre shipped 6.5 million books to buyers in Australia and around the world last year.
CEO Tony Nash said the upgraded distribution centre, which included two new automated packing machines, was completed just in time for the Christmas rush.
While the growth of online buying of physical books has been increasingly steadily year on year, he said the volume of online sales had accelerated dramatically in the second half of the financial year.
“We are expecting our biggest Christmas ever and with the ability to process 60,000 book sales a day, we will be able to satisfy more buyers, faster,” he said.
“The upgrade is the culmination of many years of planning and millions of dollars of investment in hardware, software and stock. We already had the largest distribution facility in the country, now it’s bigger and faster.”
Founded in 2004 by Tony and Simon Nash and Steven Traurig, it took three days for them to sell their first book.
He said Booktopia, which has owned the Angus and Robertson brand since 2015 and bought the University Co-operative Bookshops this year, is on track to sell over $200 million worth of books this financial year and is listing on the Stock Exchange on December 3.
