About
The operator behind Western Supply.
Michail Avdeev founded Western Supply after working on Melbourne construction sites and visiting manufacturing facilities in China, observing the same margin gap from both sides of the supply chain.
Melbourne / China
The problem
The problem we exist to solve.
When you source a kitchen package for a Melbourne townhouse through the standard supply chain, the price you pay includes three or four markup layers that have nothing to do with the quality of what you are receiving.
A manufacturer produces the product at cost. An importer acquires it, takes margin, and sells to a distributor. The distributor holds stock, takes margin, and sells to a local kitchen studio or trade supplier. The studio sells to you, adds their margin, and presents it as a quote. By the time you receive that number, 40 to 60 percent of it can be intermediary cost rather than product cost.
This structure evolved for consumers. A homeowner renovating a kitchen gets real value from the showroom, the 3D render, the design consultation and the retail relationship. For a builder purchasing 8 or 12 or 20 identical kitchens to a fixed specification across repeating floor plans, the same structure adds cost to every single one. The margin that funds the showroom comes out of your project margin. Western Supply exists to remove it.
Background
Michail Avdeev
Michail grew up working on construction sites in Melbourne, tiling alongside his father. That's where the economics of residential construction became concrete: not as theory, but as a daily reality. The cost of materials, the pressure on project margin, and the distance between what things cost to make and what builders pay for them were all visible at ground level.
The supply chain side came from travelling to China and spending time inside manufacturing facilities. Across multiple visits, Michail met factory operators, assessed production capability and quality control systems, and saw directly what the gap looks like from the other side. The difference between factory-gate cost and the price a Melbourne builder pays through the standard local chain is not a marginal rounding error. It is structural, and it compounds across every unit of a multi-residential project.
Michail is studying commerce at the University of Melbourne and runs Western Supply as its founder and sole operator. The business is deliberately kept narrow in its early stage: one category, one geography, one operational focus. The goal is to do the first projects correctly before scaling the model.
Context
Why this, why now.
The conditions that make Western Supply viable today are relatively recent. Shipping costs and lead times that spiked through 2021 and 2022 have normalised substantially. The outer Melbourne residential corridors where townhouse density is highest continue to produce projects where per-unit margins are tight and procurement cost is a meaningful variable. Builders who absorbed cost pressure in those years are more open now to supply models outside the traditional chain, provided the quality and the reliability are there to back them up. Western Supply is designed for that builder: sophisticated, time-constrained and directly motivated by the economics.
in the traditional supply chain
typical townhouse programme
per project, throughout
Commitments
What we commit to.
Every order is inspected before it leaves the factory by an independent third-party inspector. We use SGS, QIMA or Bureau Veritas. If the product doesn't meet the specification in your drawings, it doesn't ship. We resolve directly with the manufacturer at no cost to you.
All contracts are in AUD. You see the total cost before any deposit: purchase price, freight, duty and our procurement margin. The margin is disclosed, not embedded in the product price. You are not financing a showroom you didn't ask for.
Your factory order is contracted in your project name. In the unlikely event that Western Supply couldn't continue mid-order, the supplier relationship transfers directly to you. Your exposure is limited to your deposit.
One point of contact per project, throughout. Not a call centre, not a portal. If you need to know where your order is, you call one person who knows the answer.
Direction
Where we're going.
Western Supply is building toward a multi-category fit-out procurement business for Melbourne residential construction. Kitchens are the starting point because they represent the clearest version of the margin-compression problem. Joinery, vanities, stone and flooring follow as supply partnerships and quality programmes are established in each category. In time, the goal is a procurement partner capable of handling a developer's complete fit-out across multiple categories with the same operational rigour currently applied to kitchens. That is the direction. We will confirm the timeline when we are confident in it.
Credentials
Business credentials.
Direct contact