Contracting adds to Blackadder growth

THE Woodside Building and the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre are two of the biggest recent commercial construction projects in Perth – and Blackadder Group supplied scaffolding and other services for both of them.

Blackadder’s turnover doubled over the past two years to $9.3 million, helped by winning big projects but also by diversifying its services.

The core business, Blackadder Scaffolding Services, was established seven years ago in Perth.

Managing director Graeme Hearn and fellow directors John Maddison and Joe Solomon have since established Woodman Services to work on non-union sites and Construction Fitout to supply labour on construction sites.

The latest diversification move was the establishment of GCS Rapid Access, a joint venture with Global Construction Services.

GCS Rapid Access has acquired the Australian rights to the Altrex range of lightweight aluminium scaffolding equipment, which is better suited for many projects than conventional steel scaffolding.

This combination of businesses enables Blackadder Group to offer a diverse range of construction services, including labour supply, supervision and management, plant hire and sales, materials hoisting and shutdown packages.

Mr Hearn said Blackadder’s knowledge of the local market helped it obtain the right people for each project it was supplying.

He characterised Blackadder as being labour oriented, with a high level of expertise in construction, in contrast to some other companies that focus more on equipment supply.

Blackadder has a core staffing complement of 60 people, many having been with the group for many years. It employs up to a further 60 people on a casual basis when demand for its services increases.

On the labour supply side of the business, its areas include fixing and carpentry, window cleaning and trade cleaning. Its labour supply clients have included Multiplex Constructions, Broad Construction Services, John Holland, Clough Engineering and Baulderstone Hornibrook.

Mr Hearn said Blackadder first diversified into contracting when it was working on the $150 million upgrade of the Water Corporation’s Woodman Point wastewater treatment plant, completed in 2002.

As well as the Woodside and convention centre projects, Black-adder has worked on the Panorama apartments, the David Jones redevelopment and the Bell Tower in the CBD. Other projects around Perth have included the Maritime Museum in Fremantle and the company is currently working on biotechnology company Chemeq’s production facility at Rockingham.

In the resources sector, Blackadder has worked on oil and gas facilities, iron ore mines, port facilities and nickel smelters.  The company’s work on the Woodside building could lead to it moving into commercial building in Sydney.

It has been named as preferred tenderer for a building job in Sydney with G James Glass and Aluminium, for whom it worked on the Woodside building.

- Mark Beyer