Intelligent identification company Matthews Australasia has relocated to new premises to accommodate sustained growth. Food & Drink Business spoke to CEO Mark Dingley and chairman Lester Nichol about what the move means for the business.
Number 10 Lakeview Drive, Scoresby, Victoria is the new home for family-owned business Matthews Australasia. The modern facility includes offices, warehouse and a distribution centre, which have been designed to provide maximum value to Matthews’ employees in addition to its broad network of suppliers and customers.
“Due to our growth and the inefficiencies associated with working out of two buildings in Rowville, we have had this project on our radar for a while,” CEO Mark Dingley said.
From the start of planning to the completion in July, the project has taken 13 months, but the result was well worth the wait, he said.
Positioned on a 12,000m2 site the building size is 4000m2 with onsite parking for 80 plus vehicles. The additional land provides for any future expansion and is landscaped to enhance the working environment.
Internal space includes a 90m2 workshop, a system assembly area, modern open plan offices, dangerous goods storage, cleanroom facilities and a large indoor/outdoor meals area.
“Our current footprint can be expanded if required to accommodate future requirements. Relocation requires a huge amount of coordination and resources so we have been careful to make decisions that allow us to expand comfortably within the new premises,” Dingley says.
This building has been designed to maximise everyday interactions between all staff.
“We believe in the talent of our staff and are excited by the opportunities that this new facility will provide, including enhanced collaboration and to attract the calibre of people required to maintain our momentum,” Dingley says.
“Some of the best ideas in our business are first discussed in shared collaborative spaces. Staff, customers and suppliers will all benefit from the modern shared meeting areas and the workspaces we have incorporated into this new building,” he says.
The delivery of high-performing customer service has been a key design focus with this new building. All customer-facing staff will now have easy access to technical and back-of-house support staff with the open plan format and the use of technology.
“The larger modern workshop and warehouse space will allow us to more efficiently satisfy customers’ needs as well as being able to receive and dispatch stock faster due to the streamlined workflow and easy access to the Eastlink freeway,” he says.
Suppliers, in turn, will benefit by having a modern regional centre to display and promote their products and services.
INVESTING WITH CONFIDENCE
An investment of this size reflects the company’s confidence in the business’s growth prospects and its position in the Australian market.
Commenting on his vision for growing Matthews share in the coding, labelling and identification market,
Dingley says: “Matthews has always been and will continue to be known for its innovation, high levels of customer service and technical product expertise. Our future growth will be built on the foundations of the strong customer and supplier relationships we have spent decades building.
“While we are very proud of our new building, it is a physical representation of the hard work and commitment to excellence of Matthews’ staff over many decades.
“My vision is to continue to build on that success while the business evolves through innovative technologies and thought leadership. By staying close to our valued customers nationally, we will be able to identify demands and trends early, which creates a competitive edge within our business,” he continues.
“Our agile product development methodology then converts this feedback into a commercial platform; examples of this can be seen in our Visions Systems and Serialisation technologies.
“We’ve built a formula here that is proven to work well and I’m excited to see what we can deliver over the coming years,” Dingley says.
And finally, no article on Matthews would be complete without a comment from the well-known industry icon and founder of the business Lester Nichol, who says: “I would like to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to our valued staff, customers and suppliers. Being a family business, we truly value the individual commitments and contributions made by each of these groups over the years.
"We are all in a period of rapid change and increased automation. Various traditional technologies and methodologies are being challenged so we must commit ourselves to remaining informed and relevant.”
This is an abridged version of the full article published in PKN Packaging News July-August issue, which will be out next week.
