Simmonds Lumber first established its Victorian wholesale distribution outlet in Scoresby in November 1998.
In August 2000 the decision was made by the CEO to relocate the Company to a much larger site in Nathan Road, Dandenong. The move was initiated on the rapid progress and support the Company had achieved in what could be construed as a very short timeframe within the Victorian market, however, to be fair, the division did have the advantage of a market that had in part been serviced via their Sydney and Brisbane divisions.
The site at Nathan Road, with its excellent single span warehouse covering some 2,500m3 and a full concrete hardstand area of some 3,0003, now forms part of the Simmonds Group Property Investment Portfolio and will allow the division to expand its mode of operation as the market demand for its range of product increases. Adjacent to the warehouse is a modern office complex that has sufficient capacity to allow for the future expansion of our top gun programme.
Originally leased, the site owners of Nathan Road offered the property for sale in 2002. Simmonds took up the offer and moved the property into its investment portfolio.
The division was primarily created to service Victoria with a wide range of merbau products out of S.E. Asia, a market it will continue to support and expand on. Since that time the product range has diversified to cover many other products such as structural and treated radiata - western red cedar - baltic weatherboards - meranti components - cypress - and a small range of panel products.
Simmonds is today a company which takes a lot of pride in its marketing ethics which cover a wide range of timber and panel products. We do not have a manufacturing base or value added facility anywhere in the Group as we see this as a conflict of interest with many of our customers; also it allows us to concentrate totally on our marketing initiatives, interfaced with our suppliers productivity.
From Victoria we will service the far reaches of South Australia and Tasmania and are very conscious that our customers’ future growth and success will also be very much a part of our survival and long term commitment to the Victorian market.