Bunnings opens Australia’s largest five-storey warehouse in Frenchs Forest
Bunnings is taking its shopping experience to new heights with a five-storey store – the largest of its kind in Australia – set to open its doors next week.
The $48m Frenchs Forest warehouse in northern Sydney – so large even staff need a map – will feature three levels of retail, including a new kitchen design centre and the first Beaumont Tiles “store within-store’ concept as well as parking for more than 400 cars.
“It’s 101 aisles, it’s taken me a little time to learn where everything is,” store manager Paul Burgess told Nine News.
“It’s an additional 120 new team members to the business. We have 15-year-olds starting their first job, an (82-year-old) working in the hardware department.”
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Bunnings is set to open its first five-storey mega store at Frenchs Forest on Monday. Picture: John Appleyard
It will include three levels of retail space. Source: Nine News
There will also be a new kitchen design centre and the first Beaumont Tiles “store within-store’ concept.
New recruit, 19-year-old Ruby-Jayne Kelly, of Frenchs Forest, who joined the store’s lifestyles team two months ago, said the store was a “really great place to work”.
“Everyone is so much fun,” Ruby-Jayne told News Corp.
However, retail experts have warned that with bigger stores comes even more dominance for Bunnings.
“They have reached the upper limits of DIY hardware and trade. They’re now going for other categories, which is a bad thing for small local businesses because it will absorb that into its big box,” University of Sydney retail academic researcher Lisa Asher told Nine News.
New recruit Ruby-Jayne Kelly, 19, of Frenchs Forest. Picture: John Appleyard
A sneak peak inside the store. Picture: John Appleyard
Complex Manager Paul Burgess in the new Bunnings at Frenchs Forest. Picture: John Appleyard
The new store will join Bunnings’ other 310 warehouses and smaller format stores across Australia which generated $18.97b in revenue in 2024.
Bunnings opened a new store in Portland, Victoria in June, spanning 5300 square metres with more than 50 locals employed.
It also recently opened a new store in Mount Barker, South Australia and reopen Brisbane’s Oxley warehouse in September after it was destroyed in the 2022 floods.
A new Bunnings Warehouse in Perth’s Maddington has also been given the green light.
The store is set to open on Monday, December 1.
A new store opens – but others get the cut
The new store opening comes only weeks after HMC Capital’s HomeCo Daily Needs REIT has sold the Bunnings Warehouse Seven Hills for $64.71m in the largest such sale of the specialist outlets in three years.
The sale to private property finance and investment group Mosman Capital was also the first Sydney metropolitan Bunnings transaction in four years and notable for its crisp 4.72 per cent yield.
The property was picked up by a group of wealthy investors led by Mosman Capital, which is headed by Raymond Huang and Andrew Balzan. The deal underscores the pent-up demand for metropolitan Bunnings assets.
Wesfarmers announced earlier this year that it planned to cash in on the rising demand for convenience retail assets.
So far this year, 13 Bunnings Warehouse transactions have been recorded nationally, totalling $510m, with sales running at more than double the 10-year annual average of $250m.
