G’DAY Parks, Big 4 Holiday Parks, NRMA Parks and Resorts, Discovery Parks, Tasman Holiday Parks, Reflections Holiday Parks, Breeze Holiday Parks and Ingenia Holiday Parks…if you’ve stayed at one of these tourism products, you’ve jumped into bed with ModnPods without even knowing it.

This burgeoning Gold Coast company launched its first facility in Arundel in 2015, providing a modular building solution with its contemporary pods, largely aimed at the tourism industry.

Now, they’ve moved into a new facility at Arundel which will enable them to go from making 20 pods per year to 200, and which will also include a social housing element.

A ModnPod bedroom

“We make modern housing solutions for a variety of customer needs primarily in holiday parks and short-term accommodation facilities through to luxury retreats, and that solution also fits into housing affordability and social housing, currently for government employee housing,” Executive Chair & Managing Director Stuart Giles said.

“The founder was initially interested in the tiny home movement and started converting shipping containers but came to the view it was not environmentally friendly because a shipping container has a dirty footprint.

“He started building on a bespoke, one-by-one residential basis. What really became apparent was with housing affordability issues and shortages of tradies and labour and the supply chain, the opportunity to contemplate manufacturing on a larger scale presented itself.

“We’re really hopeful these early projects are the start of playing a really significant role in housing affordability moving forward.”

ModnPods Executive Chair Stuart Giles

Utilising funding from the Queensland Investment Commission, the company was able to move in June this year to their new factory around 6200 square metres – or the size of a football field.

A City of Gold Coast Investment Attraction program grant linked to job creation will see current staff grow from 50 to more than 75 by the end of this financial year.

Pods, which range in price from $150,000 to $300,000, are architecturally designed in-house and built from 90 per cent Australian-made materials and products.

There’s currently six types of pods from the smallest – The Point at 4.2m x 3.2m to the largest The Bombie at 15.5m x 4.2m.

ModnPods Arundel factory

End-to-end service includes boutique in-house architectural designs; top-end specifications to complete pod fit out; sustainable and minimal maintenance product and materials; and approximate 12-week lean manufacturing and turnaround time.

Other benefits include prefabrication in factory; no hidden costs; arrangements for pod transport and installation Australia-wide; furnishing package options; the securing of Council approval and supply of necessary certifications.

ModnPods’ commitment to sustainability includes structural steel frames; insulation panels; colorbond cladding; vinyl plank flooring; Australian-made hoop plywood; and plywood coating.

Giles said the Gold Coast possessed a “really vibrant manufacturing eco-system.”

“It has great access from Arundel for distribution for trucks to take our pods around the country,” he said.

“We knew we were going to invest in a larger facility, and we are very keen to do that by staying on the Gold Coast. We are a proud Queensland company whose headquarters are based on the Gold Coast.

“The success we’ve had by increasing our capabilities by a factor of 10 times proves that the Gold Coast is a great place to live and work.

“We’ve also been able to recruit some specialist staff because of the allure of the Gold Coast. We’ve already started discussions about our next facility.”