Hickory expands its Brooklyn manufacturing site

The Hickory Group announced plans to expand its Brooklyn manufacturing site to ramp up production of its popular modular Sync Bathroom Pods by 200%. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Minister for Employment Jacinta Allan and Footscray MLA Marsha Thomson were on hand for the announcement which is set to create a further 100 jobs.

Financial support and facilitation for the expansion of Hickory Group's operations in Brooklyn was provided through the Department of Economic Development's Investment Support program and the local Victorian Government Business Office.

We want to attract more investment like this, to create high-skill jobs for local workers and boost Victoria's competitiveness.

Premier Daniel Andrews

At present Hickory is producing roughly 2,000 Sync Bathrooms per year and is aiming to ramp production capacity up to 8,000 per year over a five year timeframe, creating a projected 100 new jobs on site.

A spokesperson for Hickory Group said as well as housing manufacturing facilities for the Sync Bathroom line, shed D at its Brooklyn site currently houses other conventional construction equipment, which will be moved out to make room for extra fixed Sync Bathroom stations.

Sync Bathrooms pods, as Urban.com.au witnessed on a site visit as part of the PrefabAUS conference in August 2014, are built from the ground up at a fixed station, with different tradespeople progressing from station to station as each module is put through the motions.

According to Hickory's website, the Sync Bathroom pods are being shipped and installed in eight different projects in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. 568 Collins Street and Central South Yarra, where Hickory are undergoing a conventional build, and 3 East are the Victorian projects.

Back in September 2014, Urban.com.au witnessed Sync Bathroom pod installation into 568 Collins Street, a myriad of photos from the site visit are available.