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GFC Industries : 60 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE IN STEEL
GFC Industries : 60 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE IN STEEL
The GFC Industries Journey
The story of GFC Industries stretches back 60 years to October 1959 when Greg, Fred and Colin founded a company and named it GFC after the first initials of their names. The company originally produced fire doors before progressing to other doors types for power stations, automotive clients (Ford and Holden) and many others.
After ownership of the business was wholly transferred to Fred Fritz, they expanded their service offering to include specialist formwork fabrication. In 1968, GFC partnered with leading formwork expert John King and formwork became the company’s primary business.
GFC have completed many specialised formwork projects including the Loy Yang Power Station, the South-eastern and Western Trunk Sewers, Upper Yarra Reservoir, Melbourne underground rail loop, Sydney Harbour Tunnel, Western Link Elevated Road, Bolte Bridge and hundreds of others.
Formwork continued to be the company’s core business until 1988 when the company diversified into structural steel which quickly became their main focus.
Sectors included large buildings, shopping centres, bridges, ports, hospitals and many others.
Since 1988 GFC have been involved in many projects including:
• Mail facilities at Dandenong and Ardeer
• Ship loading facilities for Globex and Portland
• Shopping centres including Epping Plaza, Werribee Plaza, Chadstone and The Glen
• Austin, Berwick, Bendigo hospitals
• Monash Medical Centre
• 50 Lonsdale Street, Southern Cross West Tower, 1 McNab Avenue, 150 Collins Street, Box Hill ATO Building, 271 Spring Street, 80 Collins Street, Parramatta Square, and Australia 108
• Federation Square, Melbourne Convention Centre, the Western Link acoustic tube and the Great Stupa (Bendigo)
GFC Industries Today
Today GFC is a proudly home grown Australian company with a strong reputation as a leading fabricator for multi-storey steel buildings.
At their factory headquarters in Melbourne GFC have highly experienced employees together with our network of suppliers and subcontractors. We have the capacity and capability of delivering very large and complex projects.
GFC have established long term relationships with many clients and strive for this to continue along with new prospective clients.
While the company has evolved over the last 60 years to meet the needs of a changing construction industry, their ethos has remained consistent. From the earliest days up to the present, GFC has strived to achieve the highest levels of attention to detail and quality.
A New Way To Build
As the skylines of Australian cities continue to evolve, the use of structural steel for construction is becoming increasingly prevalent. The use of offsite manufactured steel components has the potential to reduce the amount of labour and equipment that is required onsite with a resulting increase in value.
“From a steel fabrication perspective we are at the leading edge of this change,” said Ron Kandell of GFC.
“We are very proactive at getting involved in early engagement and looking at things in a lot of detail and there are often opportunities to save substantial amounts on projects.”
Prefabrication is a growing trend around the world and many projects are realising substantial benefits by moving elements of the construction away from sites and into controlled factory environments.
“Certainly one area where steel buildings can deliver benefits is in the off site manufacture,” said Ron. “If you have good craneage on a job you can really accelerate the works and you don’t have to worry about losing days to poor weather.”
Waste reduction is another big benefit of prefabricated steel construction with less waste generated onsite and less vehicle movements required. An analysis by Grocon of a previous project that GFC was involved in found an 80% waste reduction was achieved by using prefabricated structural steel.
Prefabricated structural steel also allows greater flexibility in design.
“Cantilever structures become much more possible with steel,” explained Ron. “Steel also allows much larger open areas to be achieved with fewer columns and reduced structural thicknesses.”
- Ron Kandell, GFC Industries
Case Studies: Recent Key Projects
80 Collins Street
Situated on a narrow site in central Melbourne, the 80 Collins Street development comprises a new 41-storey office tower constructed by Multiplex. The building incorporates a unique cantilevering design with part of the floor area above the sixth floor projecting over a row of adjacent heritage buildings.
“This was a very unique project for us,” said Ron. “During early engagement and collaboration, many improvements were implemented which resulted in de-risking, improved structural efficiency and bettered the outcomes for the project.”
“We also focused on accelerating the works. In the end we got down to a six day cycle time per floor which enabled us to gain back between one to two months on the programme.”
Parramatta Square
The CBD of Parramatta in Sydney is currently in the midst of a major transformation. One of the anchor projects driving this transformation is Parramatta Square which comprises three towers with mixed residential and commercial space.
The towers are primarily reinforced concrete buildings, however to deliver one 34-level tower with multiple basement carpark levels in only two years from commencement to building handover, early engagement and planning was essential.
“A triple level jump start occurred. GFC produced three pre-fabricated jump sections utilizing large tubes, welded beams and hot rolled sections of structural steel with composite decking slabs. Sloping 26m high columns, just to add to the complexity,” explained Ron.
“The jumps allowed the project to be treated like multiple building sites at once. They are part of the permanent works on the project and enable construction works to start in four different areas at the same time,” Ron said.
Chadstone Shopping Centre
A highlight for GFC was the assembly and installation of the Gridshell roof structure for the redevelopment of Melbourne’s iconic Chadstone Shopping Centre.
GFC was appointed by an International Austrian constructor for the project. The roof components were delivered to our factory where we maximised offsite pre-assembly and using specialised transport and logistics, delivered and site installed the structure with 183 individual panels.
“It was the first large major project for this company to perform in Australia and putting trust within another subcontractor you have never dealt with would not have been an easy decision. Following completion of the project. GFC received a major subcontractor assessment from there organisation and I am proud to say we received a 100% perfect score for which we were all very appreciative and proud,” said Ron.
405 Bourke Street
405 Bourke Street is scheduled for completion in 2021 and will be a new landmark reaching 167m high in the heart of Melbourne. GFC fabricated the steel to make this ambitious structure possible, and collaborated closely with the builder and the engineers on the project to identify improvements, opportunities and de-risk the project.
The tower incorporates a 14.5m cantilever over an existing 9-storey apartment building, with 25-storeys above the cantilever.
GFC fabricated the steel to make this ambitious structure possible. They engaged closely with the builder and the engineers on the project to identify structural improvement opportunities and de-risk the project.
Through workshops and ongoing discussions they have been able to bring their expertise in steel fabrication and connections to overcome the challenges inherent in this complex project.
- Ron Kandell, GFC Industries
Driving Value Through Engagement
GFC have gained significant knowledge and experience throughout the past 60 years in the construction industry. This has enabled GFC to provide improvements and help determine successful outcomes for the project.
“GFC maintain their commitment to Early engagement with clients,” Ron said. “Working closely together with client, architects, engineers and designers, benefits in efficiencies, safety, risk and costs can be achieved for the project. ‛A win for all’. We see a real opportunity to progress this much further and set ourselves apart from others.”
GFC Industries 42 Glenbarry RoadCampbellfield VIC 3061 p. 03 9357 9900e. enquiries@gfcindustries.com
