Melbourne Market Relocation
A South Australian company will help chill tenancies at a new Melbourne market. Source:
The Courier-Mail
INDUSTRIAL refrigeration company Oomiak has won its largest capital contract at a new Victorian market.
The $16 million job will involve chilling tenancies at the new Melbourne Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Centre being built in Victoria.
The Adelaide-based company has joined forces with Melbourne mechanical services company A.G. Coombs to refrigerate the market that is relocating from its existing home in west Melbourne.
Company chief executive Cate McGuire said Oomiak’s edge was in designing a centralised refrigeration system for the eventual 152 tenants to be housed at the new 55 hectare site at Epping.
This provided environmental benefits and eliminated the need for numerous rooftop cooling systems for individual stall holders.
“Similar to the old markets, refrigeration for the Epping facility was to be based on individual systems located on the roof,” Ms McGuire said.
“We knew there had to be a better way, and our director business strategy Mark Holden and technical manager Mark Twigger set about designing one.”
The central plant will pump a benign ammonia-based solution, mainly through underground hosing, to all tenancies to meet individual cooling requirements.
Privately owned Oomiak had two staff when it was started in Adelaide almost five years ago.
It now has 35 staff, offices in Melbourne and Brisbane, and its clients include Golden North and National Foods.
Ms McGuire said the industrial refrigeration company was also working on a contract with a Queensland poultry supplier and at a meat processing facility for Woolworths in Bunbury.
Oomiak, based in Dudley Park, also provides maintenance services and is currently working with a cold store operator in Sri Lanka.
