Tupperware tests market again with listing of Ferntree Gully HQ
Tupperware Brands has listed its 60 year old Ferntree Gully headquarters, two years after it last did.
The US based plastics maker – which retails via the home party model – can expect more than $25 million for the purpose-built facility at 19-21 Brenock Park Drive, 29 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD.
The property carried a guide price of about $20 million when it was marketed by a different agency in December, 2017 – two months after the commencement of the last local property downturn.
Tupperware managing director Daniel Wood said the disposal is part of a global company strategy “to consolidate its operations and streamline its supply chain to prepare for its next wave of growth and improve its efficiency across the global organisation”.
These plans, Mr Wood said, should see Tupperware increase its Australian workforce.
All Tupperware sold in Australia is manufactured overseas.
It would continue a trend adopted by other offshore based companies if Tupperware outsourced its local warehousing and distribution functions to a third-party-logistics (3PL) provider and rented replacement offices.
Last year, Tupperware offered the property for short term lease via Colliers International’s Jonathan Mercuri and Richard Wilkinson.
Selling agency Dawkins Ochuito is advertising it with vacant possession.
Tupperware’s outgoing Ferntree Gully HQ: 19-21 Brenock Park Drive
Tupperware’s landmark 23,500 square metre office-warehouse occupies a 5.9 hectare site at the north east corner of Cornhill Street.
With two zonings, Industrial 1 and Special Use, it has more than 520 metres of street frontage.
Marketing agent Chris Jones described the holding as one of the last remaining industrial redevelopment opportunities in the local region.
Tupperware’s relisting, the executive added, comes “in one of the strongest industrial investment markets in years”.
“The property provides an excellent work-life setting and, having functioned as a corporate headquarters for decades, it is perfectly suited for continued corporate occupation,” Mr Jones said.
“It also offers exceptional potential as an immediate redevelopment prospect.
“The possibilities are almost endless including full or partial owner-occupation, passive investment, subdivision of existing improvements, or business park development”.
On the Dandenong Ranges foothills, 19-21 Brenock Park Drive is 350 metres from the Burwood Highway.
Mr Jones and colleagues Andrew Dawkins and Walter Occhiuto are representing JACX Property, Tupperware’s transaction manager.
The agents close an expressions of interest campaign on March 19.
Earlier this week it was reported Kaufland would sell a series of assets which may, like the Tupperware property, be considered industrial development opportunities.