BIG W’s Warwick Distribution Centre will not be scaling back its workload, despite a New South Wales centre scheduled to open in March next year.

A former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Daily News to express fears the Rose City site would be made redundant when the new Sydney facility opens.

However, a spokesman from Woolworths Ltd, quashed the rumour insisting all permanent employees’ jobs and hours were secure.

The Warwick distribution centre is currently one of only two in Australia. The other is in Monarto in South Australia.

It is one of the Rose City’s largest employers with 180 permanent staff.

The spokesman said both centres were operating at capacity, which was the reason another centre was being built in Sydney’s Horsley Park.

“As business grows we simply needed more capacity,” he said.

“Warwick will remain an important part of the Big W network into the future.

“The new distribution centre in Sydney is necessary to service the growing number of Big W stores nationally, the latest of which opened only last week.

“Warwick is a very well run distribution centre and it will remain a key part of the company, serving stores across the country.”

At the beginning of the year, the Warwick distribution centre ceased 24-hour operation.

The spokesman said this did not lead to any job losses for permanent staff.

“The distribution centre did operate at night but this was not an ideal situation for staff or the centre’s operation,” he said.

“We have now looked at our processes at the centre and have managed to transfer that shift to the daytime, meaning staff do not have to work through the night.”

He said while some staff may have had their hours changed, there were no redundancies.

“We have had people leave that we haven’t replaced,” he said.

Casual employees are brought in at busy times of the year, such as at Christmas, to help with the rush just as they are in stores, he said.

During the festive season the centre can have double its normal number of staff members.

However, during busy periods, like Christmas, an additional shift at night is put in place to meet increased demand.

He said while the floods and subsequent road issues, such as delays at Cunningham’s Gap, had caused problems for the company, it had nothing to do with the decision to build another distribution centre.

“This was done from a long-term point of view,” he said.

“Building a distribution centre takes many years of planning and the Horsley Park plans have been in progress for a long time.

“We were affected by the floods like the rest of Queensland, but that’s just a fact of life in Queensland.

“These are temporary issues though.”