PACCAR announces huge Bayswater expansion

Speaking today at a function marking the beginning of local assembly of DAF trucks, PACCAR Australia Managing Director Andrew Hadjikakou announced a massive expansion of the company’s manufacturing plant in the Melbourne suburb of Bayswater.

The Bayswater facility has been building Kenworth trucks since 1971 and late last year celebrated the 60,000th Kenworth to roll out of the factory.

Mr Hadjikakou said that it had been confirmed by PACCAR head office in Seattle that the expansion would go ahead and that the first phase of the operation would begin soon.

Although Mr Hadjikakou would not be drawn on the exact cost of the expansion, it is rumoured to be somewhere north of $30 million.

At present the Bayswater operation employs in excess of 1200 people and that is expected to rise significantly in the coming years.

The new facility at Bayswater will be shared between manufacturing warehousing and parts.

Recently, PACCAR Parts officially opened a second parts distribution centre (PDC) in the Brisbane logistics hub of Berrinba, south-west of Brisbane, in a move to reduce delivery times to dealers and boost parts availability to customers in its retail network.