Bunnings National Property Development Manager Andrew O’Neill joins CSR Limited
Industry Shuffle: Bunnings National Property Development Manager Andrew O’Neill joins CSR Limited
EOFY is one of the busiest periods for Large Format Retailers and included Australia’s largest household hardware retailer bidding farewell to Andrew O’Neill.
Andrew has been at Bunnings for over 17 years, starting as a Property Manager then moving up the chain to Property Development Manager (NSW/ACT), Regional Property Development Manager (NSW/ACT/QLD/NT) and finally National Property Development Manager.
He was responsible for leading the property development team, expanding and improving the Bunning’s retail store network in Australia.
“Being a key driver of Bunnings’ push into multi-level store development and design improvements created endless opportunities for the improvement and expansion of the Bunnings store network”.
Upon reflection on his time at Bunnings, Andrew recalled that the Global Financial Crisis and change in the competitive landscape for home improvement in the late 2000’s as an extremely busy yet rewarding period of his professional career.
“We got control of some awesome sites, got some tough [Development Applications] approved and built some great stores.
“Each of those stores is special in their own way and some more than others.”
A career highlight was definitely “moving into commercial property development – this was an area I was always interested in having dipped my toes in some small residential development projects in the early days of my career”.
His longed interest in property was evident at the start of his career, having worked in the New Zealand residential property industry.
“I was lucky to have a property job at all in the early 1990’s, post the crash at the time – many of my fellow Massey University property degree graduates weren’t so lucky and ended up working in careers outside real estate as a result.”
Andrew then enjoyed property consultancy and management roles in banks across New Zealand and the UK.
His parting advice and prediction for Large Format Retailers?
“Never take no for an answer – you just haven’t found the solution yet!”
“I see the physical density increasing (i.e. more vertical centres to drive sites harder) as land becomes more scarce and expensive.”
Andrew now works as Senior Property Development Manager for CSR Limited, the building products company behind some of Australia and New Zealand’s most trusted building products and systems for home builders, renovations and commercial construction. CSR also has a property division focused on selling or redeveloping surplus industrial land. As well as being Bunnings’ National Property Development Manager, Andrew was an Alternate Director at LFRA.
