On Friday November 7, the new Spandex WA headquarters combining Spandex with Qualsign was officially opened by the Hon. Peter Katsambanis MLC, member for Perth North Metro who was also representing the WA Minister for Small Business, the Hon. Joe Francis MLA.
The event also heralded an all-day open house attended by over 50 personnel from WA’s wide format, signage and display production industries, plus representatives from Spandex supply partner companies which staffed information booths and gave live demonstrations.
Before cutting the ribbon with Spandex managing director Alex McClelland to declare open the Malaga premises, Peter Katsambanis addressed the audience, saying: "Western Australia is a great place to live, and a great place to do business – and I’m pleased that Spandex has chosen Perth for its newest Australasian distribution centre.
“With branches all over Europe, and Australia, it is encouraging to see that Spandex has recognised the potential of Perth as a new growth market, and as a distribution centre for the Asian region. Small business as a sector is vibrant, innovative and creative and in many ways is responsible for our very enviable Western Australian lifestyle. The small business sector is a major generator of local employment. Collectively, it is responsible for creating more than half a million (514,000) jobs in WA. This is more than the number of jobs generated by either medium or large sized business.
“Perth is on the same time-zone as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Phillipines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and parts of China, so it makes sense to have a presence on this side of the Australian continent to service this region. I congratulate Spandex on its decision to open this large distribution centre here in Western Australia to service the local market and also our Asian neighbours.”
Spandex managing director Alex McClelland also spoke saying: “With few exceptions, sign and display production firms across Australia are classic small businesses in the truest sense of the description. Ranging from one-man-bands to around forty employees and everything in-between, the majority operate as tight business units servicing the retail, advertising, safety, construction, real estate, mining and tourism industries.
"Spandex sees itself as a leader in bringing these technologies to the market, whilst backing this supply chain with staff who are knowledgeable, dedicated and helpful in supporting our customers. From our new Perth distribution centre, we will bring this same level of service to our Asian sign and display producing neighbours.”