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Company Invests to Capitalise on Mining Boom 18 January 2012
With Toowoomba situated on the fringe of the Surat Basin energy and mining boom local businesses are extremely well positioned to capitalise from the regions growth. Companies across the Darling Downs are investing heavily in extra resources, plant and equipment to ensure they don't miss their piece of the "energy" pie.
Whilst employment within the construction industry has been experiencing a small downturn, heavy industry and civil works have seen 9000 jobs created with plenty more expected to arise in the future. In addition to these new employment opportunities the accommodation providers out west who once upon a time struggled to fill their rooms have been displaying No Vacancy signs nearly every day of the week.
Toowoomba Company FK Gardner & Sons is at the forefront of the Coal Seam Gas industry and while they have worked in the Surat basin region for well over 10 years, 2011 was a massive growth period for the Group with the energy and gas works coming to inception.
This has meant the business has had to grow their workforce substantially to its current level of 600 people throughout Eastern Australia with recruitment continuing throughout 2012. A large percentage of this number is currently based in the Surat Basin region working on CSG projects.
With the rapid addition of new staff in this sector Managing Director Mr Gary Gardner realised that he had to look into a more efficient way of regularly transporting people out to the Surat region. This led to the purchase of a new Beechcraft King Air 250, the first of its model in Australia.
"I saw the amount of time our team was spending driving from Toowoomba and Brisbane out West and the possible safety issues that could arise out of this large amount of time on the road which is why I investigated a fly in fly out roster".
"Since the introduction of the airplane the time spent travelling by our site staff, especially from Brisbane, has been cut from 7hrs to about 1 hour, allowing us to not only deploy people to site more efficiently but also ensure their safety by limiting long driving hours" Mr Gardner said.
Due to the rapid boom in the Surat Basin demand for skilled workers has increased tenfold, with the available staff falling short of meeting recruitment requirements. For FKG the plane provides the company with the opportunity to utilise skill bases in other areas like Brisbane to fill these gaps.
"With the fast growth out West it has been hard to find the workers with the relevant qualifications that we need to fill the positions, so in addition to sourcing locals we have had to recruit from other areas like Brisbane which we can fly in and fly out" Mr Gardner said.
The procurement of the new aircraft has also meant the introduction of a new FKG entity, FKG Air. In addition to servicing the company's internal needs other businesses can also charter the plane for business use.
FKG is just one of many businesses in the Toowoomba region who recognise the value of investing in the Surat Basin boom, whether it is with a new plane or with people power, the works out West will continue to drive growth around the region.
