Ricoh has cut the ribbon on its brand new purpose-built Centre of Technical Excellence in NSW’s Eastern Creek, which will accommodate the company’s distribution centre and other national functions. More than 100 employees are now based at the 10,470sqm site, which marks a return to the western suburbs for Ricoh, though head office will remain in Frenchs Forest. Les Richardson, managing director of Ricoh Australia, says, “This project started long before we broke the ground here about 18 months ago, when we realised that we needed one single home for all of our technical and logistic functions.
Cutting the ribbon: Les Richardson, managing director of Ricoh Australia, and Andrew Rohan MP, Member for Smithfield, do the honours
“This building will not only be for our warehousing and spare parts, it will also be our national customer response centre; our national technical support centre, which provides support to all of our technicians around the country; our national technician training centre; national run up centre, where we test every machine before it goes to the customer; and our national workshop, where we recover and recycle machine components.” The building and fitout boasts a five-star green star rating, through energy-efficient lighting design, rainwater collection and metering and monitoring. It features digital displays detailing the site’s water and energy use through air conditioning, lighting and power – and will allow visitors to check out targets and comparisons of previous performance periods. A rainwater collection and reuse system is expected to save more than 12,000 litres of water a week, and other sustainable design features, including a garden of native plants designed for limited water use, mean the company achieved all 10 of the available points in the green star water category.
Inside Ricoh’s new five-star green star warehouse
Richardson says the building matches the company’s overall commitment to sustainability. He says, “In the future we want to continue to build around environmental initiatives, introducing toner cartridge collection and refilling, remanufacturing and second hand machines and recovery of usable parts.” Ray Waterhouse, from property developer Jacfin, adds that the centre is the first distribution facility in NSW to be awarded the five-star green star. He says, “Jacfin is proud to be associated with Ricoh. We wish them good business not just today but into the future.” Andrew Rohan MP, Member for Smithfield, was present to cut the ribbon; and thanked the company for investing in the western suburbs. Richardson says, “We are assembling a great team, consisting of long term Ricoh staff who have transferred to this facility, but more importantly I think we have been able to recruit from the local community. We are looking forward to being to deliver on our vision of what we are trying to achieve with this centre.”
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