A Sunshine stalwart has re-opened its doors to the public.
The Sunshine Bunnings Warehouse, the first Bunnings store to be built in Australia, reopened last week after a $13 million refurbishment.
Store manager Matt Caruana said he was delighted with the results of the 16-week project.
“It’s fantastic to see all the upgrades – I’m incredibly proud of what’s been achieved,” he said.
The newly renovated warehouse has 50 additional staff members and has a new undercover timber yard, large landscape and green life nursery, trade sales drive thru, state-of-the-art kitchen division and airconditioning.
While pleased with the end result, Mr Caruana said the project was difficult from a logistical standpoint.
“We have 110 team members here who had to be placed in other stores while the works were being undertaken,” he said.
“On top of that, there’s also the risk that shoppers will become comfortable at alternative stores. We’re surrounded by Bunnings stores around here.”
But with the project now complete, Mr Caruana said the store is now a source of great pride.
“We had a staff opening for the store before we had the public one and 700 people attended, which just shows how much this place means to the organisation,” he said.
“It was definitely all worth it. As Australia’s first Bunnings store, it’s important that it’s kept in line with modern standards so it stays around for many more years to come.”
