diff --git a/Dockerfile.autoreducer b/Dockerfile.autoreducer
index 4318caf2..338679ff 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.autoreducer
+++ b/Dockerfile.autoreducer
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ RUN dnf install -y https://github.com/neutrons/post_processing_agent/releases/do
 ARG DATA_TARBALL=/tmp/SNSdata.tar.gz
 COPY SNSdata.tar.gz ${DATA_TARBALL}
 RUN ls ${DATA_TARBALL}
-RUN cd /SNS && tar xzf ${DATA_TARBALL}
+RUN mkdir /SNS/ && cd /SNS && tar xzf ${DATA_TARBALL}
 
 # create startup script
 RUN echo "#!/bin/bash" > /usr/bin/run_postprocessing && \