PARKD LIMITED (PKD) - Revolutionizing Modular Construction: Managing Director Peter McUtchen on Prefabricated Car Park Innovations, Strategic Licensing with Fielders, and Sustainable Industry Advancements

Discover how PARKD Limited is setting new benchmarks in the construction world with its revolutionary modular car park solutions. In our latest episode, we sit down with Peter McUtchen, the Managing Director at PARKD Limited, who shares the company's journey from its inception in 2018 to becoming a leading specialist contractor and technical advisor. Learn how their innovative pre-fabricated systems are shaking up the industry by focusing on efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability. Peter also unveils the details behind their exciting licensing agreement with Fielders, which combines their renowned slab product with PARKD's patented beam technology, unlocking new potentials in the market.

Explore the fascinating proof of concept projects: The Quattro Automotive Myaree and John Hughes Forward Street, which showcased the effectiveness of PARKD's Metal Deck Support System (MDSS). Peter offers insights into how these initiatives validated their technology's performance and underscored their competitive edge. Uncover the unique benefits of PARKD's lightweight concrete modular car park systems, which drastically cut down on-site labor and time while maintaining high performance standards. This episode promises a wealth of insights into how PARKD Limited is poised to transform construction with its forward-thinking approach.

Transcript

Andrew Musgrave Host

00:05

Welcome to another episode of ASX Briefs, and joining me today is Peter McUtchen, the Manager Director of PARKD Limited, an innovative building solutions company known for its patented pre-fabricated construction systems and specialises in modular car park solutions that are transforming the construction industry, with a focus on efficiency, sustainability and adaptability. Peter, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast. 

Peter McUtchen Guest

00:32

Thanks for the invitation, Andrew. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

00:33

Now, Peter, for listeners that may be unfamiliar with PARKD, can you just provide a brief overview of the company? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

00:39

PARKD started targeting the development of car parks through its patents, and our patents allow us to construct car parks in a modular fashion, and that's what we've been doing since our conception back in 2018, really. And yeah, PARKD is now, I would say, a leading technical advisor and we are a specialist contractor in the delivery of built-form car parks and other storage facilities. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

01:10

And congratulations on the recent licensing agreement with Fielders. So, can you elaborate on how this partnership came about and what it means for your growth strategy? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

Sure. 

So, we have a very intimate understanding of what is needed in the design of car parks and, through the evolution of the company and its solutions, we identified a fantastic product on the market which is available through Fielders. 

Now PARKD has a patent for a beam, which we all understand. A beam holds up structure, so that's a critical part for the construction and the design of the car parks. But we needed a really good slab element, and Fielders have the best product on the market, and what we developed a couple of years ago now was a connection system that allowed the use of their product without our beam, and that union or marriage or whatever you want to call it, was very attractive to Fielders because predominantly their solution. Their slab product was paired to steel structures. However, our innovation and our connection system allowed them to marry it to concrete structures and, as we know, in Australia we love concrete a lot more than we love steel structures. So, this opens up a very large part of the construction market for their products and for us it means that we have access to a fantastic supplier and a real big bucket of horsepower in terms of marketing and getting our IP into the market and our solutions to developers. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

02:58

Okay, and the Quattro Automotive Myaree and John Hughes Forward Street projects were described as proof of concept initiatives. So how did these projects validate the performance of the MDSS and what were the key takeaways? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

03:10

So, the MDSS is an acronym for the Metal Deck Support System. Now, these projects came about really independent of the proof of concept that was introduced later as a term to fit into a licensing agreement for a year, basically to go right PARKD, we're happy to step into a full licensing agreement if you can demonstrate to us on these projects that your product performs in a way that is compatible with our product. So, I would say from the outset and importantly, we won these projects, and we positioned ourselves into these projects on a commercial basis in competition with other solutions on our own. So, we haven't done this with any particular help from anyone other than us presenting to our clients the best possible solution. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

04:04

Okay and PARKD is known for its innovative lightweight concrete modular car park system. So how does your technology set you apart from traditional construction methods in terms of cost, efficiency and sustainability? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

04:17

Well, the biggest differential between our solution and traditional solutions in terms of construction is the reduction in on-site labour and time. On-site we do predominantly all of the work, except for wet concrete works, off-site. So that means that we don't need the volume or the amount of skilled labour on-site to be able to deliver the project and we don't need the volume of labourers to get the work done. So, a lot of the assemblies sort of how we describe a lot of our works on-site is done by a crane engine rigging crew and they just pick up the parts of the Lego set or the Meccano, they put it all together and then we have a concreting crew come in, no formwork required, no props, none of that, all that fussy stuff underneath the slabs. They just come in, drop down some mesh, pour the concrete and you've got your structure. So, the biggest differential is that we have taken on-site works off-site and it's not in any way discounted in terms of performance. We still achieve the same spans, the same deflection, the same everything by whatever is required by the Australian standards. We still meet. 

I think there's other differentiators as well. You know we do use half the amount of concrete compared to traditional construction. So, think about. A typical job might be 2,000 cubic metres of concrete. We're just using 1,000. You know, when you look at the amount of carbon that goes into making concrete, it's monumental. So, when you're reducing the amount of concrete, less carbon. So, our jobs often have a slant, a sustainability slant, because naturally we're using less carbon than other people. The other thing is less materials, less cost. So, we see that our solution comes in about sort of 25 to 30 percent cheaper than traditional construction, which is phenomenal. 

Now, the licensing agreement with Fielders, previously, when we were offering our solution, it was through PARKD. You know you come to PARKD, you seek out a design and then we offer a lump sum, fixed lump sum costs and program to push into construction. Now the game has changed because Fielders are offering our product in a brochure and they've still got the comfort of coming to PARKD and say, oh, we need, we need design assistance, or we need you to help us with engineering. But essentially, if there's a contractor anywhere in Australia that wants to access this solution, great for regional, by the way, you know, regional centres where they don't have access to a lot of equipment and labour they can get what they need now and they can get it at an accessible price. So fantastic for social housing, fantastic for schools, fantastic for gymnasiums or other community assets. So yeah, big change for us and big change for the construction community. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

07:26

Yeah, and can you also just share some more information about the recently granted innovation patent and how this recognition enhances your marketing position? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

07:36

We don't have any innovation patents at the moment, Andrew, but we have full-blown Australian patents an Australian patent for our continuously voided beam, which is, I might add, is internationally registered, so in 13 other countries. It's a very unique patent and a very valuable one because it allows us to use a common product in the construction industry called Hollowcore. We're able to use that as a beam and that crosses all jurisdictions in terms of territories. So, if anyone wants to take the benefit of using Hollowcore as a beam element in the structure, then we've got to come back to PARKD. The Metal Deck Support bracket is its own separate patent application and that is in the process of being registered in Australia and internationally in essentially in the same territories that we already have secured patents for our CVB. 

What's important to us here in the protection of our IP is that the value in our system is across all territories and all construction markets. So, when I look at the American market and we look at what, also what Fielders potentially or BlueScope, more than Fielders, where BlueScope see potential for our solution in the US market, they see it as being a step change in the way they deliver jobs over there because the construction market in the US is actually quite conservative, its quite hard to shift, but they look at the innovations out of Fielders and from the Australian market and they are very excited about what, how they can then change the solutions offered to territories like the US or Japan or Canada or Europe. Um, so yeah, our patents are our protection and really what investors should see as our secret source and what makes us different and protects us from other threats and other people who might want to do the same thing. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

09:54

And just touching on those overseas markets, let's just say US, Japan, Canada, et cetera what are some of the key factors influencing the choice of international markets? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

10:08

We see that the uptake in the metal deck formwork solutions, which is its own subset within construction called profile sheet steel, that is earmarked to grow to around a $35 billion market in the next six or seven years and that's essentially double where it's been over the last two years. So, they see that the solutions that are afforded by this product internationally are universal. In that the benefits are universal. The benefits are that you need less resource and everyone's struggling with resources, not just Australia, you know. You try and go and find a form worker or a concreter. 

Like it's hard to get resources in Australia. It's hard to get resources in Europe. Hard to get resources, resources in America. Imagine the American market now in construction where you've got half of the cheap labour that was available to you has just been booted out the door. Like the America’s got a bigger problem with resourcing now than it's probably had in the last 50 years. So, everybody is grappling with the same issues around how do we build things in an economical way with less resources? So, we see it as a perfect time for the US to see our solutions and to appreciate what they offer them in delivering government projects or private developments. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

11:33

And just looking at the financials, the Q2 FY25 report showed positive cash flow from operations and a healthy cash reserve of in excess of $750,000. So, what strategic initiatives have contributed to this strong performance? 

Peter McUtchen Guest

11:46

I love how you say healthy, healthy cash reserve there of $750,000. I'll take that. Thank you, Andrew. Well, obviously we're rebuilding our cash position and where we sit, we have run the company from cash extraordinarily tight. We've got really good cash flow through our projects. We've got a tight team. We've got low burn rates of within our overheads. You know we have done everything we've been able to you know reasonably do to avoid raising equity. 

You know, last time we shook the tin there for two investors back in 2021, I think, 2020. It was a long time ago. So, the company has only done one capital rise. 105 million shares are sitting out there. We are a disciplined company. We have tried to avoid going to our investors to keep the lights on and it's paid off. We've got here. We're starting to rebuild. Um have I think we've had four positive quarters in the last five. You know that is a huge testament to the team and to the directors in in sticking to the course and, uh yeah, having some discipline around how the company's managed. 

We're really excited about the next six to 12 months because the deal that we've executed with Fielders is based on royalty payments back to PARKD. Now we're not going to see that, probably for the next six months. But from that point forward and the projected sort of growth that they see in the product and how they see our IP being sold to their market, PARKD is going to be in a fantastic position to have a cash flow into the company that we're earning on Sunday mornings while everyone's having a sleep and fixing their cup of tea. So that's the dream for us has been let's take the heat off, that continual need for us to win work and to deliver work, to getting a sort of annuity type of income into the business, again hopefully avoiding any need to go to investors unless we've got a real scale opportunity If we want to go to the US or Europe. We see that the deal that has been done protects PARKD into the future and protects our investors. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

14:09

All right, Peter. Well, it's been great to chat today, get an update on where the company's at, and we look forward to further updates from PARKD in the upcoming months. 

Peter McUtchen Guest

14:16

Good on you, Andrew, much appreciated. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

14:18

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.