Spectrum Brands

Moorabbin Airport, VIC

There’s a good chance that many of the things you use every day around your home come from Spectrum Brands. This global supplier represents leading names like George Foreman®, Black + Decker®, Armor All®, Remington®, Rayovac®, supplying everything from batteries to building supplies, grooming products to small appliances, and pet supplies to insect repellent.

Since 2011, the company has been operating out of Qanstruct-built premises at the Macquarie Goodman Chiefly Industrial Estate at Moorabbin. Recently, with the lease coming up for renewal, Spectrum decided to use the opportunity to bring the teams from their two facilities under the one roof, and approached Qanstruct to design and construct a new home on the same estate.

The $20.5 million distribution centre, completed in February 2017, was designed after consultation with staff and has been purpose-built to increase productivity while minimising the company’s carbon footprint.

It incorporates a two-storey office with an impressive double-glazed façade system, providing comfortable workspace and collaborative outdoor areas for staff. The office complex also includes boardrooms and three showroom spaces for product demonstration and training.

The warehouse is an efficient distribution hub with extensive racking, a wrapping station, and dock offices adjacent to recessed loading docks, all of which are covered for weatherproof loading and unloading, and an external Dangerous Goods store.

The building is also energy efficient and eco-friendly, with electric-boosted solar hot water and rainwater harvesting tanks. Spectrum Brands also specified LED lighting throughout, both internally and externally, a move which was uncommon at the time but which will deliver significant environmental benefits and cost-savings over the life of the building.

In another move which places this facility ahead of its time, the company also employs an intelligent, fully-programmable VRV system controller from Daikin to provide ultimate control over the facility’s entire air-conditioning network, all from a simple, touch-screen interface.

The building itself is complemented by extensive external hardstand areas for easy truck access, and plenty of carparking for staff and visitors.

Perhaps most importantly, the new facility has been planned to allow for future expansion, so the company can stay in its new home for many years to come.