Industry global supplier Spandex Asia Pacific is fully settled in to its South Strathfield, NSW, warehouse and logistics centre, so we thought we’d drop in and see how it’s all going. "Stock is King," they say.
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| Spandex's Ben McCauley (L) and Nathan Barclay (R) in the R&R area of the new warehouse/logistic centre, NSW |
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Spandex’s new warehouse and distribution centre, is the sheer scale of the enterprise and surrounding industrial estate. Stacks of shipping containers reach for the sky on nearby lots and passenger vehicles are in the minority, with 32-wheeler trucks in abundance as they deliver and pick up container after container – not just for 
Spandex of course, but for the many companies who have discovered the efficiency of being located within the Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre – with both road and rail container access and handling.
“At our previous site, it could take us up to 3 hours to unpack a container due to access issues,” says Sales Director Ben McCauley,” now, it can be as little as 30 minutes before the pallets are sorted and on the racking.”
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| Ben McCauley, Spandex |
The B-doubles find it easy to unload from the hard stand area and into the dock. Around 4,000 sq metres of space is pallet-racked way up to the 14 metre roof and the office- sales support area is bright and welcoming, including a demonstration/media test room brimming with HP Latex printers. "Hardware sales have been really strong with both our HP Latex and Mimaki UV/Solvent solutions ," notes McCauley.
Including interstate branches, Spandex Australia employs around 100 staff and recently expanded into New Zealand in March 2020, via a dealer agreement with Computaleta, for Spandex’s own brand of ImagePerfect digital print and signage media.
Today’s Spandex is managed by three local directors: Ben McCauley in NSW oversees Sales; Eugene Quigley in Queensland is responsible for Operations, Daniel Lara in Finance and Nathan Barclay takes care of Marketing. The group CEO is long-time Spandex executive Rod Larson in Europe while the Australia operation is overseen by David Neidell, VP Asia-Pacific.
“We’re a house of brands,” says McCauley, “our success is largely due to on our long standing partnerships with the industry’s leading brands, specifically, Avery Dennison, Arlon, HP and Mimaki. Our shared vision to deliver value for our customers in Australia is what drives us. More recently we have added the UK perforated media leader ContraVision, as well as STEK, a global leader in paint protection films. In August 2019, we acquired Sunshine Coast supplier LA Services, which has strengthened our position in the Queensland market, ensuring we can provide the Spandex service to the Sunshine Coast and northern Queensland regions.”
Spandex commendably showed its support during Covid-19 in a $1 million package where by customers ordering over $1,000 in consumables were only billed for 50% of that.
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| Nathan Barclay, Spandex |
Nathan Barclay notes: “In today’s environment, good stock is king. The greatest challenge is getting films, vinyls, boards into the warehouse as there is a global shortage of containers. In this, Spandex has been quite successful as we are a global organisation – keeping our customers supplied is the priority.”
The Spandex catalogue will be available in print and online in the early part of 2021.
Please note all images are © 2020 Wideformat Online
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| Plenty of warehouse space at Spandex's new Sth Strathfield, NSW logistics location |
