Brightpoint doubles Sydney capacity

Specialist distributor and service provider Brightpoint is trading its Sydney office up for a location twice the size to take advantage of continuing strong growth in its mobile distribution and third-party logistics services.

Felix Wong, general manager at the Australian arm of US-based Brightpoint, said the distributor had run out of capacity at its Frenchs Forest premises in Sydney. Brightpoint's new Sydney lease would be in Belrose and was more than double the size.

"We need more space," Wong said. "Part of our business is distribution and part is third-party logistics. And for us to grow third-party logistics, we have to have a bigger warehouse."

Brightpoint would move into its new premises in two weeks, he said.

He said Brightpoint had increased sales volumes and taken on more lines of business in the past year. However, he would not say how much growth in total the company had seen.

"Third-party logistics is very much dependent on the people you are doing logistics for, and what their business is doing," Wong added.

Third-party logistics had been growing strongly. However, distribution of hardware - including handsets -- had also been doing well as the marketplace diversified, he said.

Flash memory and new accessory lines for mobile handsets and handheld devices - such as GPS -- were also strong, he said.

"In our business, the delineation between handsets and handhelds is getting greyer and greyer and greyer. We have a lot of different converged devices you can classify as handheld devices," Wong said.

That seemingly endless variation was stimulating the market rather than holding it back. People could now buy handhelds and handsets much the way they bought clothes, by selecting devices conforming to their specific criteria from myriad choices, he said.

Many brands and lines were doing well. The sales growth was not coming from any particular type of handheld device or customer. Features such as GPRS, GPS, email and so on all had their fans and uses, he said.

"Thinking capability [of devices] has become more robust and more functional," Wong said.
 
Wong had no immediate plans to add staff to Brightpoint's total Australian team of 100, but added that more hires would doubtless be considered as time went on.