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Wednesday, November 27, 2013
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Lisa Curry visited the Tableland last week putting on a series of free clinics for up and coming swimmers. Details, page 27 Picture: Peter Roy
TCB downsizes
By Ryan Groube
T
he owner of Tableland Concrete Blocks (TCB) has urged customers not to abandon the business following the announcement of a major restructure that will see nine local jobs lost. TCB managing director Warwick Colefax confirmed to The Express that the business will stop manufacturing concrete blocks on December 6 and will also sell its Tolga depot and a small parcel of land in Mareeba. Mr Colefax said rumours circulating Mareeba
and the Tableland that the company had gone into liquidation were false and that for customers it would be “business as usual”. A substantial loan facility, as well as the lingering effects of the Global Financial Crisis, prompted the restructure. “We have been under a lot of pressure from the banks since the Global Financial Crisis,” Mr Colefax said. “In 2006 we bought the business, we had a good year in 2007 but when the GFC hit in 2008 it [business] went downhill. “We bought as much time as we could, about three years, waiting for an improvement but it has
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just reached the stage that we had to do something drastic to reduce our borrowings.” Mr Colefax said the business would continue to sell concrete blocks “they just won’t be our blocks” which will be sourced from a far north Queensland supplier. The business will also continue its masonry supplies arm and will look to add to and enhance its landscaping yard. “For the most part it will be business as usual, if anything, we will be increasing our range of products, unless of course our customers abandon us,” Mr Colefax said.
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“If they stay with us and bear with us then we will continue to be able to be the only supplier of these services on the Tableland.” Mr Colefax, who is based in Sydney, travelled to the Tableland on November 14 to personally inform staff of the changes. He said the decision to restructure had not been taken lightly. “This is obviously something that we didn’t relish doing but we were forced into doing it to survive,” he said. Mr Colefax said he was optimistic of the future of the business on the Tableland. TCB has been operating in Mareeba since 1971.
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