Ballarat manufacturing company MaxiTRANS has landed a mammoth $60 million contract to build 395 trailers for Coles, generating more than 100 jobs in the process.
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The Wendouree-based manufacturer will build two different types of trailers for Coles trucks which will be used in New South Wales and Western Australia, with all elements of their construction to be completed in regional Victoria.
Construction on the trailers began on Monday morning, with the first of the fleet expected to hit the road by Mid-May. All 395 trailers are expected to be completed by the end of February 2018.
MaxiTRANS chief executive Dean Jenkins said the contract provided great confidence in the future of manufacturing in regional areas.
“The quality of the product coming out of Ballarat is fantastic and on top of that we’re probably the only local supplier who has the ability to produce that number of trailers in a year,” Mr Jenkins said. “It means we can stand up and compete against anyone in the Australian marketplace.
“We’re really hoping to use this as a great opportunity to get better at doing things in Ballarat and hopefully that will allow us to win more contracts like this in the future.”
The units will be entirely assembled in Wendouree using some parts made in the company’s Hallam plant. Of the 100 jobs created, about 70 will be based at the Ballarat site, with the remaining 30 expected to be primarily based at Hallam.
The new jobs will be a mixture of permanent positions and contract workers. When running at full capacity the contract will represent about 25 per cent of the factory’s overall workload.
About 400 of the company’s 950 staff currently work at the Ballarat site.
In a statement, Coles head of transport Tony O’Toole said Coles was pleased to be able to support the creation of jobs for regional Victorians.
“We are always looking for ways to strengthen our relationships with local suppliers to help sustain the communities we serve every day, and we’re proud that deliveries to our stores will be made using trailers produced right here in Victoria,” Mr O’Toole said.
The deal comes just two days after fellow Wendouree manufacturer Brimarco was revealed as the joint winner of a Victoria Police tender to build 10 new booze buses, worth $15 million.
The contracts provide a major boost in confidence for the manufacturers who have both faced testing times over the past decade. Brimarco fell into administration back in 2015 before being rescued, while MaxiTRANS laid off more than 50 workers in 2009.
