Melbourne Warehousing

Choosing a warehouse in Melbourne is really a decision about how fast your stock moves between the wharf and your customers. Get the location and the storage racking right and you strip days out of your supply chain. Get it wrong and you pay for those days in demurrage, double handling and missed delivery windows.

IFC runs its Melbourne warehousing operation from a 27,000 square metre facility at Altona, 13 kilometres from the Port of Melbourne. The short port run matters more than the number suggests. It is the difference between clearing a container the same day it lands and paying storage while it waits in a yard across town.

A Melbourne warehouse built around the port

The Altona site holds 45,000 pallet positions across more than 36,000 stored locations, racked with Silverline P90+ in a double deep and selective mix. That combination is deliberate. Selective racking provides fast pick access to lines that turn over quickly. Double deep lifts density for slower moving stock, so you are not paying for floor space you do not need. For a growing brand, that mix is what keeps storage rates sensible as your range expands.

Proximity to the wharf is backed by the West Gate Tunnel, which opened in 2025, and the Port Rail Shuttle Network. Both give IFC faster, more predictable runs to and from the Port of Melbourne, including same-day container moves when a delivery window is tight. If you import seasonal stock or run to retailer delivery slots, that responsiveness is worth more than a marginally cheaper storage rate further out.

More than storage: 3PL that handles the whole flow

Warehousing on its own rarely solves the problem. Most importers need someone to receive the container, unpack it, store the stock, pick and pack orders, then arrange the outbound freight. IFC covers that full chain from the one site in Altona:

• Third-party logistics (3PL) for pick, pack and dispatch
• Cross-docking for stock that needs to move straight through rather than sit in racking
• Reefer container storage for temperature-sensitive goods
• On-site AQIS inspections, so quarantine-controlled imports are handled without carting containers elsewhere
• Freight forwarding and value-added services under the same roof

Running these steps in one location removes the handovers between separate providers, and it is the handovers where stock gets damaged, delayed or lost.

Accreditation that matters for food and sensitive goods

If you move food, beverages, healthcare products or organics, your warehouse partner’s paperwork is not a formality. The Altona facility is HACCP and ISO accredited, with AQIS inspection capability on-site. For a food importer, that means your compliance chain holds from the wharf to the retailer’s distribution centre, and you are not scrambling to prove provenance during an audit.

Why the head office presence counts

IFC’s head office sits on-site at Altona. When a container is held, a delivery slot changes or a retailer moves a booking, the people who can make a call are in the building, not in another state. That shortens the time between a problem appearing and someone fixing it. Over a year of shipments, that responsiveness compounds into fewer failed deliveries and less stock sitting idle.

The locally manufactured racking is a smaller point, though a real one. Sourcing the Silverline system in Australia rather than importing it lowers the embodied carbon of the fit-out, which is increasingly something retail partners ask about in supplier reviews.

Is IFC’s Melbourne warehousing right for you?

The Altona facility suits importers and distributors who value port proximity, need accredited handling for food or sensitive goods, and want warehousing and freight managed by one team rather than stitched together across several. If your stock arrives through the Port of Melbourne and you are tired of paying for the gap between the wharf and your racking, it is worth a conversation.

Learn more on the IFC Melbourne warehousing page, or reach the team on +61 3 8398 0600 or at info@ifc.com.au.