As of October 29, 2026, Super Retail Group has opened a 90 million dollar retail precinct at Fountain Gate Central in Narre Warren, bringing BCF, Rebel, Supercheap Auto and Macpac together on one site for the first time and marking the group's 800th store. The 14,100 square metre development, built by BWP Group on a former Bunnings site, includes Victoria's first BCF Superstore and what the group describes as the largest Rebel experience zone in Australia. The four stores occupy about three quarters of the precinct and have created almost 70 retail jobs.
What the precinct puts on one site
The site is a test of whether four brands with overlapping customers do better together than apart. Camping, sports and automotive accessories are bought by households that often shop across categories, and a shared site makes the second and third purchase easier. The format only pays off if customers actually walk between the stores, which is a measurement question rather than a design question.
The physical details matter as much as the brands. A BCF store of more than 3,500 square metres can hold tents and boats that a standard store cannot, and the Rebel zone includes a multi-purpose court for basketball, football and pickleball. Those are things a website cannot demonstrate, which is the argument for keeping large formats open while smaller stores close.
Why a former big-box site works
Precincts of this size rarely appear inside shopping centres, because the formats need height, loading access and parking that centres cannot provide. Former big-box and industrial land offers all three at a lower rent per square metre, and the destination effect of four known brands can replace the footfall a mall would supply. The trade-off is that the site has to generate its own traffic rather than borrow it.
Macpac's repair station as a traffic driver
The Victorian debut of Macpac's latest store design includes a care and repair station and a footwear terrain trail. Both are service features rather than product displays, and services bring customers back on a different cycle than purchases do. A repair drop-off creates a visit that a discount promotion cannot, which is why outdoor brands are adding them to new formats.
What the four banners have to prove
The precinct has to prove three things: that the trade area can support four large formats, that customers cross between them, and that the shared costs are genuinely lower than four separate sites. If only the third is true, the group has found a cheaper way to open stores, not a better way to sell. The distinction decides whether the format is repeated or abandoned.
| Question | Evidence to collect | Decision it informs |
|---|---|---|
| Can the trade area support four formats? | Catchment population and drive time | Whether to repeat the precinct model |
| Do customers cross between brands? | Cross-visit rate and basket overlap | Layout and promotion design |
| Are shared costs lower? | Rent, parking and access cost per square metre | Site selection for the next precinct |
| Does it cannibalise nearby stores? | Sales change at single-brand stores in the region | Network planning |
The cannibalisation question is the one retailers most often skip. A precinct that lifts total sales while pulling them from three stores ten minutes away has not grown the business, it has moved it. Checking the surrounding stores before and after opening is the cheapest way to tell the difference, and it is the number a board will ask for first.
800 stores changes the arithmetic
Reaching 800 stores changes what a new opening has to deliver. At that scale, a single precinct is a small share of the estate, so the test is not whether it works in isolation but whether it produces a pattern that can be repeated. A format that only works on a former Bunnings site in a growth corridor is a niche, not a strategy, and the group will need several sites of that type before the model is proven.
Auditing a precinct before repeating it
Before committing to a second precinct, the first one has to be audited with evidence that can be compared across brands. The sequence below starts with the site, moves to the customer, and ends with the network, so that the answer covers both the store economics and the effect on nearby stores.
The audit answers a question that opening-day coverage cannot: whether the precinct creates demand or redistributes it. If cross-visit rates are high and nearby stores hold their sales, the model is additive and worth repeating. If cross-visits are low and nearby stores fall, the group has built an expensive way to move customers between its own brands, and the next site should be smaller.
FAQ
Why put four brands on one site?
Because the trade area is the same for all four. A customer buying camping gear, sports equipment and car accessories is often the same household, so sharing a site lowers the cost of reaching them and raises the chance of a multi-brand visit. The risk is that the brands start competing for the same parking space rather than for new customers.
What makes a precinct different from four separate stores?
The shared infrastructure and the shared catchment. Parking, access roads and the destination effect are paid for once and used by every brand. That only works if the site is large enough to hold the formats, which is why precincts appear on former industrial or big-box land rather than in shopping centres.
How do you know if a precinct is working?
Look at cross-visit rates, not just total sales. If customers who enter one brand also enter another on the same trip, the precinct is adding traffic. If each brand serves a separate visit, the site is really four stores sharing a car park, and the rent saving is the only benefit.
Does a large format still make sense in a digital market?
It does when the product needs handling. Tents, bikes and roof racks are hard to buy without seeing them, and the service attached to them, such as repair and fitting, cannot be delivered online. Large formats work where the store does something the website cannot.
