MW Manufacturing expand to Thuringowa Central to meet surging demand
A surge in camping during the pandemic, combined with a strong demand from tradies, has forced an Aussie business to find a new Townsville home.
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A surge in demand from tradies and people embracing the great outdoors has set the stage for MW Manufacturing’s ambitious expansion into Thuringowa Central.
Founded in a small Sydney workshop in 1999, MW have gone on to become a market leader in design, manufacturing and distribution of more than 100,000 aluminium toolboxes, trailers, and canopy products annually.
After operating at Bayswater Rd, Garbutt over the past eight years, MW Manufacturing north territory area manager Mark Jiang said they had spent two years carefully considering where to expand to meet the increasing demand for their products.
“We started out doing tool boxes and canopies and about a year before Covid, we made a decision to change our focus to become a comprehensive supplier of products that can be used for work and camping,” Mr Jiang said.
He said tradies gravitated to their products, which were ideal for storing tools, keeping them dry and safe.
“With Covid, a lot of people couldn’t travel internationally, so they were looking into the domestic market (for camping) and that is when everything took off – it went through the roof,” he said.
Another key to MW’s popularity was their dedicated research and design team, which was continuously creating and improving versatile products, suitable for both work or camping environments.
The business has also built strong relationships in wholesale sales, counting car dealerships, North Queensland councils, and power companies among their fleet and corporate customers.
Due to size and staff limitations at their Garbutt store, Mr Jiang said MW manufactured in Brisbane before locally installing an estimated 200-250 medium to large orders annually.
With some customers travelling from as far as Cairns, he hoped to expand into other North Queensland centres.
“At this moment we’re just being restricted by the staff members, it’s very hard to find the right crew to operate the shop at this moment,” he said.
MW reached out to Colliers Commercial sales and leasing executives Todd Walsh and Aaron Power to find a space where they could ramp up manufacturing and installations, while providing more space to display and store stock and grow staff numbers.
For an undisclosed price, MW purchased a large 1538sq m showroom warehouse complex at 62 Hervey Range Rd – currently home to Haymans Electrical Kirwan – where it will reopen in January.
Mr Walsh said there were two tenancies at the property, where one would operate as a showroom and the other as storage.
The showroom warehouse held appeal due to its high exposure to a busy main road, with substantial signage pylon for advertising, and plenty of space for MW’s volume of equipment.
“(MW are) extremely happy with the outcome and are looking forward to getting operational from the location,” he said.
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