As of 30 October 2026, Super Retail Group has opened a 90 million dollar, 14,100 square metre retail precinct at Fountain Gate Central in Narre Warren, south east Melbourne, bringing BCF, Rebel, Supercheap Auto and Macpac together on one site. The opening also marked the group's 800th store. It is the first time all four brands have opened side by side on the same day, which turns the site into a live test of how a store network behaves when its banners share a trade area.
Four banners, one car park
The economics of co-location are straightforward on the cost side. Four banners share a car park, an access road, signage infrastructure and the marketing spend that brings people to the site, and they can also draw on a pooled stock position, which lifts availability in every shopfront and cuts the stockouts a single banner would otherwise carry on its own. On a per store basis, the precinct lowers the cost of reaching a shopper who is already in buying mode for outdoor, automotive or travel gear, categories that overlap far more than they appear to.
The revenue side is harder. If the same household would have visited two of the four brands on separate trips anyway, the precinct mainly consolidates trips rather than creating new demand. The gain then shows up as lower cost to serve, not higher sales. Measuring which of the two effects dominates is the whole point of running the site as a cluster.
Experience zones as the differentiator
Each banner carries a piece of theatre that a pure e-commerce offer cannot match. Rebel's multi-purpose sports court lets shoppers test footwear on the surface they will actually play on. BCF's superstore format widens the range into fishing, camping and four wheel drive. Macpac adds a care and repair station, which extends the relationship past the first purchase.
These features cost money to build and money to staff. They pay back only if they lift conversion or basket size enough to cover the space they occupy. That is why precinct formats tend to appear where rents are lower and floor plates are generous, typically in suburban growth corridors rather than in prime city retail.
What the 800th store signals
Reaching 800 stores puts Super Retail Group in a different operating category from single banner chains. Scale at that level changes the relationship with landlords, because a group can anchor a development and negotiate terms a single brand cannot. The Fountain Gate site is on a former Bunnings footprint, which suggests landlords now treat the group as a replacement anchor tenant.
Scale also raises the cost of getting store selection wrong. A single misjudged site is a local problem; a misjudged precinct is a four brand problem in one trade area. Groups at this size usually run a formal store potential model before committing capital, weighing catchment growth, competitor density and the cannibalisation risk across their own banners.
Reading a trade area properly
A trade area is not a radius on a map. It is the set of households that will actually choose the site over the alternatives, and that set changes by category. Someone will drive twenty minutes for a large format outdoor store but not for a pair of socks. Precinct planning works when each banner's real catchment is mapped separately, then overlaid.
Where cannibalisation hides
Cannibalisation rarely appears in the new store's numbers, because the new store looks healthy in isolation. It shows up in the surrounding stores' like for like sales in the following two quarters. Groups that only review new store performance tend to discover the transfer effect a year later, when the cluster's combined sales have already plateaued.
| Banner | Format feature | Category role | Catchment behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| BCF | Victoria's first Superstore, over 3,500 square metres | Outdoor and camping anchor | Destination trips, longer drive times |
| Rebel | Largest experience zone in Australia with a sports court | Sportswear and footwear | Frequent visits, trial driven |
| Macpac | New store design with care and repair station | Technical outdoor apparel | Niche, service led |
| Supercheap Auto | Expanded automotive and four wheel drive range | Automotive maintenance | Repeat, needs based |
How to review a precinct opening
Review the cluster, not the store. Add up the sales of every banner within the catchment for the eight weeks before and after opening, then compare the total against the same period a year earlier. If the cluster grows by less than the new site's sales, the precinct has mostly moved demand rather than created it.
Then look at cost to serve. Shared parking, shared marketing and shared back of house should lower the cost per visit across all four banners. If that number does not improve, the format is paying for experience space without earning the operational benefit, and the next precinct should be smaller or more focused.
FAQ
What did Super Retail Group open in Melbourne?
A 90 million dollar, 14,100 square metre retail precinct at Fountain Gate Central in Narre Warren, housing BCF, Rebel, Supercheap Auto and Macpac. It also marked the group's 800th store.
Is this the first time all four brands opened together?
Yes. It is the first time the group has opened stores for all four brands side by side on the same day, which makes the precinct a live test of shared catchment economics.
What is inside the precinct?
Victoria's first BCF Superstore at more than 3,500 square metres, the largest Rebel experience zone in Australia with a multi-purpose sports court, Macpac's latest store design with a care and repair station, and an expanded Supercheap Auto range.
Why does co-location matter for a store network?
Four brands in one trade area share parking, access roads and marketing spend while keeping separate categories. The risk is that they also share the same shopper, so incremental sales have to be measured at cluster level rather than store level.
