Toll unveils plans for Singapore depot

At Toll Group's AGM in Melbourne, Managing Director Brian Kruger has announced plans to develop a new five-level facility in Singapore

Toll Group today announced it will construct a major new warehouse facility in Singapore, as the Australian logistics and supply chain giant furthers its interests in the Asia region.

The news was announced by Toll Group Managing Director Brian Kruger at the multi-national's Annual General Meeting, which saw around 350 shareholders, proxies and guest in attendance at the Melbourne Convention Centre.

Mr Kruger said the Singapore development would play a key role in the company's future.

"In really exciting news I can announce for the first time today that we are planning to progress with the development of a five-level ramp-up warehouse at a prime location in Singapore," he said.

"This facility, which will be known as Toll City, will form an integral part of Toll's wider Asian strategy to develop and attract high-margin accounts in the retail, consumer and health-care sectors.

"Toll City will provide approximately 100,000 square metres of contemporary, state-of-the-art logistics capacity to markets in Singapore and the immediate region, to support Toll Global Logistics' long-term strategy."

Toll Group will be spending approximately $S30 million ($A27 million) on the $S200 million ($A180 million) facility, with the local developer to cover the majority of the expense.

The news follows on from major investments in advanced Toll IPEC parcel processing facilities at Bungarribee in Sydney and Tullamarine in Melbourne, along with addition new depots such as Toll NQX Karawatha (Qld), Toll Gap Ridge in Karratha (WA) and the Toll Tasmania Brighton Hub.

In addressing the AGM Mr Kruger said the company has been making steady progress in a tough environment.

"I've now been in my role for a little over two-and-a-half years and I believe we have made steady progress in terms of improving productivity, reducing costs and driving cultural change through our One Toll program," he said.

"Overall, we were able to deliver an improved financial result despite the continuation of challenging economic conditions in most of our key markets."

Mr Kruger said the company position had improved with the help of several cost-saving initiatives.

"Our major project aimed at improving the performance of the Global Forwarding division, Project Forward, resulted in more than $20 million of savings being delivered during the year.

"Through a combination of other restructuring and productivity programs, and benefits realised through capital expenditure and improved purchasing, we also delivered another $80 million in cost savings across the Group. So, a number of difficult decisions and a lot of hard work has allowed us to deliver an improved result over the prior year.

"As well as our focus on cost reductions, our continued investment in upgrading our market-leading network businesses will not only improve productivity in the short term, but ensure we are well positioned to capitalise on any improvement in trading conditions."

Toll Group generated revenue of $8.8 billion in the last financial year and a net profit after tax (before individually significant items) of $298 million, the latter representing an increase of 5.7 per cent.

Toll unveils plans for Singapore depot

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