WAU is set to transition from Ford to Toyota in 2026, marking a significant shift in its operations.
Move to a New Facility
WAU will relocate from its current base in Clayton South to a nearly completed 100,000 square meter facility owned by the Walkinshaw Group in Dandenong South. Walkinshaw has revealed that the construction project exceeds $100 million and has recently visited the site, which is just weeks away from handover. This new facility will accommodate the Walkinshaw Group’s automotive production facilities, engineering and design studio, corporate offices, and eventually the Supercars team. “It’s a purpose-built facility purely for Walkinshaw Group,” Walkinshaw explained on the Rusty’s Garage podcast. “It will house between six and eight production lines for different manufacturers. It will house our world-leading engineering and design studios.”
Staffing and Operations
The facility is expected to employ around 100 to 120 engineers, with a total staff capacity of 1,000 to 1,400 at maximum. The race team is also set to relocate there. “Everyone’s going to start moving in from the end of August. The keys get handed over end of August, which is really exciting. The first production line will move over at the beginning of September, and then we’ll start staggering those in towards the end of the year. And then in April is the planned date for the race team to move, and then it will be all full.”
Transition to Toyota
The April target will enable WAU to begin production of its first Toyota Supras from its current workshop before the move. WAU transitioned to its current location in Clayton South in late 2023 after relocating from its previous long-term home. The impressive figures associated with the new facility highlight that the race team, co-owned by the Walkinshaw family, is merely a small aspect of the overall group. With an influx of engineering contracts, including local left-to-right hand drive conversions for various vehicles, Walkinshaw has expanded significantly since the closure of Holden’s local manufacturing, which ended Holden Special Vehicles.
A Positive Outlook
“It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened for us,” Walkinshaw remarked about what initially seemed like a devastating setback. “It opened the doors to lots of different manufacturers. It forced us to realize what we were really good at doing. [That is] the really, really high-end engineering and design and manufacturing processes for automotive manufacturers and adding value by being able to do niche programs between 1,000 and 10,000 units a year. For manufacturers, they were too small in scale to give interest to them, considering the cost they would have to apply to that program. But we could do it for much cheaper and do it much faster, and that’s where we’ve discovered we had a lot of value. From there, we’ve just continued to grow. So, it’s an exciting project moving into this new site. What I really think the site demonstrates is just how far we’ve come as a business.”
Future Prospects
The connection to the UK for the Toyota Supra Supercars engine adds another layer to this exciting transition. With these changes, WAU is poised for a promising future in the automotive industry.
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