GMC member Surdex Steel will throw open the doors on a spacious new 6,000 square metre distribution facility in Corio next month to service continually growing demand in the greater Geelong area.
Account manager Frank van Dyke tells GMC the expanded capacity was needed to cater for steel requirements in everything from housing to freeways, railways and the new Spirit of Tasmania shipping port, which relied on supply from Surdex to refurbish the passenger terminal.
“We like to hold on to the idea of that sleepy hollow regional area but Geelong is very, very fast becoming metro,” says Mr van Dyke, who grew up in Torquay and went to school in Belmont.
“The regional centres are growing rapidly. The amount of people that have moved down during the COVID period has been massive and the technology – and the people themselves – have decided to invest in Geelong rather than Melbourne, and we’ve seen that growth happen.”
Surdex, part of the national Southern Steel Group, identified Geelong as a particular area of activity that justified investment for the future after the business spent the past two decades here as a “smallish sort of branch and kind of under the radar.”
The business prides itself on combining the buying power of a large steel distributor with the “friendly service you’d expect from a local business,” offering more than 10,000 steel products and services such as cutting to length and plate profiling.
The team work hard to employ and procure locally, and Surdex supplies steel to the major fabricators in Geelong, including fellow GMC member Hanlon Industries, Maddison Wright Engineering, Brockman Engineering, A+ Steel Fabrication and Atex Steel.
Recent projects include the rail duplication project in Geelong and the Northern Aquatic and Community Hub.
Surdex Branch Manager Luke Ananidis says moving out of the existing 1970s distribution structure and into the new purpose-built warehouse in O’Briens Road, Corio will make loading quicker, more efficient and safer. It is expected to eventually employ up to 32 staff.
“We want to be known as ‘Surdex Geelong’ and give the region the full complement of products and services locally, so it doesn’t have to go up the freeway, and we don’t have to rely on other people to do things for us. We want to become a one-stop shop,” Mr Ananidis says, adding that Mr Van Dyke is a “master” at nurturing fledgling local businesses.
“We’ve been quite successful with a few of them. That gives us a buzz. What we’re trying to create is to have people from here working here, and giving businesses the support they need. People who worked at Ford and Alcoa for years – people that have got great knowledge and skills.”
Mr van Dyke says Surdex and its customers are “very, very lucky where we are here in Geelong,” and have made full use of Deakin University students to grow their businesses, and the benefits of Gordon Tech and the G21 Geelong Region Alliance.
“We’re really trying to promote Geelong and keep industry in Geelong,” he says.
“You just have to look at the skyline of any town and if you see one or two cranes in it, you know there’s growth. When you look around Geelong at the moment, you can see those cranes. We have faith that it is going to take off.”