The new North Launceston Bunnings Warehouse being constructed on the old Gunns Lindsay Street site is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, at a cost of more than $45million. Source: The Examiner
The 16,000 square metre warehouse will employ more than 170 people once it is operational, a spokeswoman for Bunnings said yesterday.
She also said that contrary to public opinion at the time the former Gunns administrative building and the timber yard buildings at the back of the site were salvaged and recycled where possible during demolition to clear the way for construction of the new warehouse.
Interstate company HTroon are head contractors for the superstore construction.
Their demolition subcontractor removed existing buildings from the site, salvaged plant and equipment and building materials with a large amount of recycled product sold on for reuse or recycling, the spokeswoman said.
Other materials, such as concrete and bricks, were crushed and reused on the site as road and foundation base.
The national hardware company bought the former Ogilvie Park site from the failed timber company for $14million nearly a year before it went into voluntary administration and then liquidation at the end of last year.
Bunnings did not take over the site for a number of months and only started clearing it to make way for its new operation a few months ago.
Bunnings chief operating officer Peter Davis said at the time that the proposed new superstore was a major plank in a strategic plan to lure customers from its main rival, Woolworths.
Woolworths owns both Becks hardware stores in Launceston.
