Australian Forests & Timber News, February 2013 – 3
AFPA CEO announces retirement A
USTRALIA’S LEADING forestry products organization is set to appoint a new chief executive officer following the announced retirement of its inaugural CEO Dr David Pollard. He will officially step down in April. Applications for the position closed on 14 January. Prior to taking on the AFPA role, Dr Pollard headed VicForests, the commercial timber corporation of the Victorian Government. Prior to working with VicForests, he held a number of senior management positions with the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments in the areas of industry development, economic policy and finance.
These roles included Victorian Commissioner of State Revenue and Assistant Commissioner of the Productivity Commission. Dr Pollard is the author of a number of books on public policy and is a Senior Fellow of Melbourne Business School. In 2002 he was awarded the Commonwealth Centennial Medal for services to public sector management. AFPA chairman Greg McCormack said Dr Pollard had “worked tirelessly in progressing the interests of the industry and its members in a challenging year, including the consolidation of the association following the merger of the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) and the
Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) in 2011”. He made particular mention of the development of the AFPA policy roadmap ‘A Renewable Future’ in 2012 which laid the foundation for promoting the multiple economic, social and environmental opportunities the forest, wood and paper products industry can provide in the new low carbon economy. Dr Pollard threw down the gauntlet to Government when he said the potential benefits for the industry were contingent on “getting policies right”. “Australia should capitalise on the strengths of its renewable
forest-based industries,” he had said. “The forest, wood and paper products industries are well placed to help the Australian economy transition to a sustainable, lower emissions future. “With a growing population and higher demand for a range of building, paper and energy products, the sector can help satisfy this demand with a renewable resource. It can also provide significant economic development and regional jobs. The forest, wood and paper products industries presently have a gross value of turnover of $22 billion, supporting around 120,000 direct jobs nationally.
Dr David Pollard, AFPA CEO.
“This is an environmentally friendly industry making products that are renewable, natural and carbon positive with significant opportunities to provide jobs and economic benefits,” said Dr Pollard. “The potential benefits of getting these policies right are huge.
New dawn for Tigercat in Australia AUSTRALIA’S TIGERCAT dealership has reverted to a single source with news that Onetrack is now the sole dealer across the nation. The dealership had been operated between Forest Centre (Tumut-based) and Onetrack with each covering specific States. The change won’t see the end of Forest Centre and its principal Lex McLean ... it will be a change in direction for the long time industry stalwart. Using Australian Forests & Timber News to speak directly to forest contractors, Lex said that after nearly 45 years of being involved in the logging industry and 32 of these years in Australia and 30 years with Forest Centre he had decided to begin his transition to retirement and to step back from the heavy daily involvement. “This decision necessitated terminating my Tigercat agreement and Tigercat transferring it to another dealer,” said Lex. Forest Centre had been appointed the dealer for the Tigercat product in Australia in 2000 with the
David Hazell.
introduction of the machines at AUSTimber in that year. “It is a premium product we believed in and have been proud to sell and support over the past 12 years. With more than 220 Tigercat machines in the Australian “bush” my team at Forest Centre has done well to put the machines out there in a competitive market. “With many of our customers we have had a long and close relationships and I consider them as friends as well as customers. Most of all I have been fortunate enough to have an excellent team of staff with me who I am sure our customers have got to know well. “While Tigercat has been our main focus over the past 12 years we have during this period continued selling our other attachment product lines -- ExTe, Hultdins, Baltrotors, and recently Rotobec,” said Lex. “In fact, when Forest Centre started in 1982 as an importer for Hultdins and Indexator attachments as well as used forestry machines, it was with these original product lines that the Forest Centre name was made known in the Australian forest industry. “Now that we have terminated the Tigercat dealership Forest Centre will again focus on the attachment side; with ExTe as our main focus followed closely by Hultdins, Baltrotors and Rotobec,” Lex said. “Recently we have adapted ExTe air operated load restraint for general road transport applications, with The Laminex Group choosing to upgrade their entire national distribution fleet from potentially dangerous and labour-intensive manual load binders to ExTe automatic units. “There is great potential for all of our remaining product lines, so with these we look forward to continuing to build on our existing and new customer relationships. “So, we are not just disappearing into the sunset we will be getting up with the sunrise --like an old ANZAC National serviceman,” Lex quipped. All Forest Centre contact details and phone numbers will remain the same and some existing staff will be retained. The new staff structure will be:
• Wendy Christian, CEO • Reymund Kell, Sales and Marketing Manager • Raymond “Raybo” Bocquet, Parts and Warehouse Manager “We would like to formally thank our customers for their patronage with our company. For me personally it has been a great and very enjoyable journey over many years. Kathy and I look forward to catching up with everyone again in the near future while on our caravanning adventure,” Lex said. Managing Director of Onetrak, David Hazell, said that while Lex is leaving big shoes to fill, he was looking forward to the opportunity to provide a full national service to the forest industry. “The forest industry has a big future in the Australian economy and environment because of the positive impact it can have on both the balance of trade and taking carbon out of the atmosphere,” said David. “Despite the tough times we’ve been facing over the past few years, I have every confidence the industry will come back stronger than ever so we’re excited about being in the right place to help make that happen with some of the world’s best equipment to get the job done,” he said. Early in 2012, Onetrak was appointed as Tigercat distributor for Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria and officially took the sole dealership from 1 February. Onetrak intends to lease Forest Centre’s full service facility in Tumut and will continue with a facility in Bunbury in order to support customers in Western Australia. Tigercat and Onetrak are striving to make this transition as smooth as possible for all Tigercat customers in Australia. “All of us at Onetrak are very excited about building on our relationship with Tigercat as it is an exceptional product that receives factory support here in Australia that is second to none. Our role as the national dealer for Tigercat in Australia is to pick up from the good work that Lex and his crew at Forest Centre have done with the product and take it to the next level. We look forward to building strong relationships with our existing forestry clients and new ones right across Australia
and feel very positive about the future.” Incorporated in 2006, Onetrak has rapidly grown into a major player within the Australian construction and forestry equipment industries. Employing more than 40 people across Victoria and Tasmania, Onetrak prides itself on the quality of its people, carefully chosen from a diverse range of backgrounds within the industry and with one common trait – a desire to provide exceptional customer service. In addition to new Onetrak facilities to be opened at Tumut, NSW and Bunbury, WA, Onetrak has branches currently located in South Dandenong in Victoria, Brighton in Tasmania and a service centre at Mt Gambier, South Australia. All of these locations boast state of the art service facilities and are supported by several field service vehicles to cover work in any region – no matter how remote. The Tigercat team extends its appreciation to Lex and the entire Forest Centre staff for 12 years of dedication and commitment to Tigercat and the Australian forestry industry.
Lex McLean.
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