Costa Logistics is on the march, signing new warehouse deal and revealing more "aggressive growth plans"
By Brad Gardner | March 9, 2010
The Costa Group is continuing its rapid national expansion, with its logistics division increasing its presence in Queensland as details emerge of more “aggressive growth plans”.
Costa Logistics will take over a temperature controlled 3,500 square-metre storage site in the Brisbane suburb of Morningside on April 1. The operator currently runs another site at Parkinson near Brisbane and sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Tasmania.
Chief Operating Officer Geoff Norman has also revealed to ATN Costa is on the verge of signing a new deal on another nearby warehouse and is working to establish a foothold in South Australia and increase market presence in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We are now chasing another site near Morningside,” he says, adding that the deal is in final negotiations.
“We’ve got some pretty aggressive growth plans.”
While Costa has secured new contracts from the Morningside deal, Norman declined to name the new clients or speak further about the expressions of interest from existing and potential customers.
He says the Brisbane site will deliver high quality chilled warehousing space for the company and cement its position as a leading perishable foods solutions provider.
And in a signal to competitors, Norman says Costa will use its Brisbane presence to target high volume manufacturers, food service producers and producers of juices, dairy products, confectionary and fresh produce.
“We can offer companies in Brisbane a hi-tech, high quality service and we will be promoting that quite extensively through an aggressive marketing strategy in Queensland,” he says.
With the company anticipating the creation of 40 jobs in the next three years due to the Morningside deal, Norman says Costa Logistics has entered the Brisbane market at the right time.
“We certainly believe it’s a market we should be into,” he says.
The latest expansion comes less than a week after the Costa Group announced a $6 million deal with Optus to centralise the company’s telecommunications services.
Under the deal, the family-owned business will use one data network for its three divisions operating across multiple sites.
Costa Executive Director Simon Costa expects the decision will improve service delivery, account management, reporting and asset management capabilities and reduce service costs.
Costa also recently cut duplication from its executive team by scrapping separate boards for each division.
“We how have one group board that will oversee the whole Costa Group,” Norman says of the change.