Features

A win-win partnership reaches MEGATRANS

Strategic Management

Colliers and Argon & Co expound on the partnership that is bringing their combined teams to MEGATRANS 2022 to showcase their supply chain and logistics capabilities and property expertise that provide a holistic solution for clients.

As anticipation builds for MEGATRANS’ return this month at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Colliers and its end-to-end operations consultancy partner, Argon & Co look forward to exhibiting together as a team to help reimagine how integrated supply chain and industrial property solutions are delivered. 

“I think that with the COVID postponements, there’s a lot of pent-up energy for MEGATRANS 2022,” Argon & Co Partner Sean Mitchell says. “It’s not the first event since COVID, but MEGATRANS distinguishes itself as a pure play transport and logistics trade show.

“Given that we launched our strategic partnership with Colliers in the thick of COVID last year, this is really our first opportunity to get out there and network and present to attendees as a united front.”

THE COLLIERS-ARGON & CO TEAM

Established in September 2021, the partnership was formed to provide Colliers’ industrial occupier clients with access to Argon & Co’s supply chain and logistics services. By involving a third-party partner that worked exclusively for occupiers, Colliers could be confident that its occupier clients knew there was a separation between landlord and occupier interests. This has solidified the groundwork for many successful, long-term relationships with occupier clients.

Additionally, since partnering with Colliers the consultancy has become more informed on industrial property clients’ needs from the start of the process.

“We now have the ability to come and have business-to-business type discussions around assisting the occupier at the outset of the process,” Colliers National Director Industrial Advisory Peter Evans says. “The partnership with Argon & Co ANZ allows us to address the best supply chain and logistics solutions for our clients earlier on than would be possible operating alone.

“The partnership is of course still relatively new, and the timeframe for these client journeys is in the order of 18 months to two-and-a-half years to really see results come through. But, for me, the most important benefit we’ve seen from a Colliers perspective has been in forging and consolidating long term partnerships that will benefit our clients.”

Another benefit is that Colliers has a better understanding of global trends in automation or new technologies being used in the market.

“Argon & Co and Colliers are global players,” Peter says. “The merger has meant, from a Colliers perspective, greater access to information, data and resources that really add to the already sterling benefits we have derived since the beginning of the partnership, pre-merger.

“With Argon & Co’s broader reach in APAC as well as globally – the strategic partnership allows the bandwidth to be able to draw on the right experts at the right time, no matter where they are in the world.”

The partnership with Argon & Co. allows Colliers to address the best supply chain and logistics solutions for its clients earlier on in its client relationships.

Founded more than 20 years ago with a focus on strategically transforming operations, Argon & Co’s global presence has grown substantially. With a team of over 400 like-minded experts spread across 15 cities, the end-to-end consultancy partner has access to global insights in varying geographies. Now, on the ground in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, Argon & Co’s ANZ team employs more than 60 people focused on operational strategy and transformation. 

The Colliers-Argon & Co partnership provides an integrated property solution for clients – something Sean says is becoming an increasingly common necessity across the world.

“People are looking for an integrated solution because invariably a supply chain solution begets a property solution, or a property solution needs a supply chain solution,” Sean says. “With Colliers, we are able to complete the entire offering when talking to a client.” 

Peter adds: “What Colliers brings is real time property knowledge to the consultancy process, which enables the right solutions to be put in place at the right time.”

The right time for MEGATRANS

At MEGATRANS 2022, Colliers and Argon & Co will showcase how their partnership can create more value for clients. This is especially true as clients adjust and realign their thought processes in relation to property and supply chain within a changing environment in the industrial property space, Peter notes. 

“There are myriad new pressures– whether its demand for property, rent rises, or upticks in building costs – which is really forcing people to look at their property through more of a logistics lens than they might otherwise,” he says. “For example, efficient automation solutions like AMRs [Autonomous Mobile Robots] can make more use of less space and can stay on top of demand, in the event workers get sick again.

“Now that there’s a sense we are really emerging out of COVID, we want to show off the fact that the Colliers-Argon & Co team has an integrated solution offering industrial property occupier services and logistics consultancy services. The industrial property space has changed a lot from pre- to post-COVID, and we have kept pace with what we think is a unique service. I don’t think any of our competitors are offering what we’re offering.”

At MEGATRANS 2022, everyone from Argon & Co’s Logistics and Distribution practice will be attending to highlight an interactive display with some of the digital solutions on offer.

“In particular, we’ll be showing off our digital twin capabilities – i.e. virtual identical twins of the inner workings of a building – for warehouse optimisation, as well as broader supply chain network design simulations,” Sean says. “It’ll give a real tangible feel that attendees should enjoy.

“It’s also important to note that Argon & Co, as an end-to-end operations consultancy, has significant expertise beyond strict supply chain. We are very experienced manufacturing experts, which is obviously complementary to supply chain, and ties into considerations around best use of industrial properties. So, we’ll be using our digital twin interactive demonstrations to spotlight our abilities in manufacturing, too.”

Along with around 25 Colliers-Argon & Co specialists rotating across the full three days of the event, there will always be someone at the stand to address delegates’ national questions about industrial property.

DEMONSTRATING VALUES

Through the partnership, Colliers abides by its strong values in assisting its occupier clients in the long term by referring them to Argon & Co when the need arises. So, when the need arises at MEGATRANS, the team will be there.

“What can often start out as a property discussion (e.g. ‘We need to hold more stock due to current supply disruptions’) evolves into risk-based inventory optimisation, supplier performance framework, streamlining of logistics and new warehouse work methods mitigating the immediate need for additional space,” Sean says.

“For me, this really underscores how Colliers do really want to live out the value of helping their clients on a long-term basis because – transactionally speaking – there is nothing immediately tangible in terms of reward for Colliers in passing on a client to an independent third party such as ourselves to provide a service. Nothing, that is to say, other than knowing they’ve done the right thing by the client.”

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