Meet the Boss - Richard Smith, C & S Wear Parts

MEET THE BOSS

RICHARD SMITH Owner and Manager, C & S Wear Parts Pty Ltd

Five years ago, the old C & S Wear Parts in Regency Park went into liquidation due to cheap imports and some bad debts. Longship Enterprises purchased the business from the liquidator and amalgamated it with Northern Conveyors.

Both businesses are located now in the old C & S Wear facility – a factory and office with a footprint of 1,500 square metres – and trade under that name. The company specialises in design and engineering, and manufacture of buckets and attachments, and is a distributor of a wide range of ground engaging tools.

“Diversifying has been the key to the survival of both businesses,” said Richard Smith, who has 15 staff in total on the workshop floor. They are boilermakers with a range of skill sets, a fitter and two local lads as apprentice boilermakers. “We have Jamie Carney from the old C & S who specialises in ground engaging tools and buckets, and we have Rob Joyner who is our conveyor rep,” Richard added.

“I look after sales from both sides of the business. I spend most of my days quoting in the office and do travel to several locations regularly. Mainly I spend my time quoting and looking for new opportunities.”

C & S provides the following services:

• fabrication of buckets and attachments;

• ground engaging tools and cutting edges;

• refurbishment of buckets and truck trays;

• site shutdown labour;

• house line boring and machining;

• general fabrication;

• wear liner manufacture;

• auger and attachments;

• 3D modelling and design;

• Sanki conveyors and conveyor components;

• conveyor design and manufacture;

• onsite welding repairs.

Richard said the largest project undertaken in the last five years was the rebuild of a 350-tonne Liebherr excavator bucket ‘which was in the order of $200K’. He added: “We have a customer base that knows we build quality products that will last and are repairable, unlike the cheap imported rubbish on the market.

“My philosophy is and always has been to buy Australian – where you can these days. We use Australian steel where possible and as many local services that we can. We have not travelled down the path of importing buckets at this stage and have no future plans to do so. We produce a quality product at what we know is a reasonable price and we look to provide solutions to our clients’ problems.”

“We have a customer base that knows we build quality products that will last and are repairable, unlike the cheap imported rubbish on the market.”

Asked what he thought could be done to help economic recovery, Richard responded: “My comments on this subject are quite simple. It is OK to give a high priority to infrastructure development but local-content contractor and service providers must be included in this mix.

“It is no good spending taxpayers’ dollars on infrastructure if huge foreign-owned companies own a majority of this work and spend my taxes on cheap imported products. The recovery of our economy needs to travel right down the line and its goal needs to provide as much stimulus to local suppliers and contractors as possible.”

Written by John Satterley