| 55 FBT Workshop CONTRACTING T T Hugh de Lacy Workshop affected by shortages A serious shortage of heavy diesel mechanics and engineers is placing pressure on the FBT Workshop. PARTS / SERVICE / SALES / REPAIRS / FABRICATION 72 Connett Road, Bell Block, New Plymouth 06 7696506 - info@mccurdy.co.nz www.mccurdy.co.nz • Truck Parts • Trailer Parts • European & Japanese • American Parts • Jaltest Diagnostic Equipment Contact us on 0800 404 100 for your parts requirements. Proudly Supporting FBT Workshop 15 Mustang Drive, Bell Block, New Plymouth 06 262 0009 nplparts@spt.co.nz Proudly Supporting FBT Workshop Labour shortages are biting across the diversified spectrum of fertilizer spreading and heavy vehicle maintenance companies operating under the FBT – Freight Bulk and Transport – brand of New Plymouth. About 60% of FBT Workshop Ltd’s truck maintenance work is on their FBT Spreading spreader-truck fleet and Osflo Fertiliser bulk fleet while the rest is servicing local transport companies. Both companies were established by partners John Geraghty and Malcom Campbell in 1966, and their workshop operation reflected the importance they placed on maintenance in a transport sector where the trucks were routinely operating off-road. In its early years the two branches of the business worked round the clock, the spreader fleet operating throughout the day and the workshop repairing hoppers and spreaders by night. Work came to a temporary halt in 2000 when the workshop on Katere Road, purpose-built in 1982, burned down after the main switchboard connection over-heated. For some years the workshop operated out of the nearby vacant Toledo Engineering building until the new workshop was finished in 2014. In 2018 Dave Geraghty and Rod Campbell succeeded their fathers as shareholders in the diversified enterprise, and continue to see diversification as a key element of the business. Overall management of the businesses rests with chief executive officer Rob Facer who is also a shareholder. Rod runs FBT Workshop as operations manager, and also oversees the wholly-owned Windy Point Quarry and FBT’s landholdings which comprise a portfolio of lifestyle properties and the 55ha dry-stock farm on Mountain Road that’s also home to FBT Spreading and Osflo Fertiliser. The farm is sub-leased to the Taranaki Community Rugby Trust, while the workshop is an 800m2 building with a staff of eight full-time mechanics and engineers operating the latest equipment, including a specialist truck-washing facility. Rod also oversees the investment in both the North and South Taranaki franchises of the Whangarei-based portable cabin rental company Just Cabins, the southern franchise acquired just in the past couple of months. “It’s a very dynamic company doing lots of juggling of lots of balls,” Business Development Manager Mel Sorrensen says. And the hardest of those balls to juggle is recruitment of staff. “There’s a serious shortage of heavy vehicle diesel mechanics, and engineering is also a tight market but it’s in the workshop that we’re feeling it.” “I’m not sure what’s led to it, whether it’s caused by the drop in immigration that followed the Covid outbreak or the work itself not appealing to some drivers. “Thankfully the Ministry of Social development has extended its financial support for employees, giving them a $500 per month incentive per apprenticeship. “This should help towards fulling the current shortage in the market.” Two of the workshop’s current staff are apprentices, one doing general engineering and the other doing diesel mechanics, and Mel says the companies rely heavily on retaining existing staff ahead of recruiting new ones. “We’ve got a lot of long-term loyal employees, so retention is a key element of our staffing policies,” she says.
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