We caught up with Kelli Bodey our Quarry Manager at Booyal to ask about how the last twelve months have been transitioning from a privately owned quarry into Boral.
Kelli said she had spoken with her team that morning about just that and the resounding response was challenging but with a lot of positives as well.
“For me personally, I have learned so much this year, from health and safety, environment, compliance at the site, people and culture, logistics and sales systems. It has been good for myself and also the team. We literally didn't have a traffic management plan, and now we have everything working smoothly, we also completed a workshop overhaul to allow effective and efficient preventative maintenance to occur and actioned a place to park all our equipment at the end of the day, which sounds pretty simple, but has made a real difference” Kelli said.
The site has also had its fair share of visitors this year with Kelli saying most of Boral has dropped in. “It has been great to meet the broader team, and we have had so much support from Paul Noakes (EGM Concrete and Quarries North), Blake Senior (GM Concrete and Quarries Regional Queensland), Erin Nugent (Acting GM and Commercial Finance Manager), Derek Brock (Area Manager Country Logistics), Nigel Rich (Sales Manager Regional Qld), Brendan Lutter (Accounts Manager Wide Bay) and Josiah Strong (Asset Manager Fixed & HME, C&Q). Kelli called out Tim Burvill in particular, “Tim, our Ops Manager, making himself available to the team and I, has been really appreciated, he has been a huge support to this site.”
The arrival of Martyn Taylor, a Quarry Support Manager in Queensland late last year was instrumental. Having someone familiar with the business and how to transition the site was a huge benefit. “Trying to take in so much information and make the necessary adjustments was a huge task. Having Martyn here who understands the business, was a previous Quarry Manager and is already across the systems and processes made all the difference”.
The quarry is already working with Council to expand and grow the site, and Boral has invested in a new automated weighbridge to improve efficiency.
The Booyal team have done a great job retaining the bulk of their original customers and working with the Boral sales team to attract some bigger projects and clients. “Boral really did do right by our original customers and that has been noted and appreciated by them”. Moving away from knowing every customer to having a sales team to look after them was another big adjustment that Kelli and the Booyal team have taken in their stride.
"Our Booyal colleagues have had a lot asked of them this year beginning with an avalanche of information coming at them from day one, to learning new systems and procedures and the influx of visitors to the site. So, we would like to thank them all for coming on the journey with us and that we really acknowledge and appreciate their commitment to the company" Paul Noakes said.
Kelli said her team has been the biggest highlight of the year, “they are my biggest support, they make me laugh every day and most of the team has stayed with us. They are such good communicators, and if there are any issues, concerns or feedback, they bring it straight to me or one of the supervisors, which is such a good thing.”
We look forward to many more years working with our colleagues up in Far North Queensland.
