THE scales and weigh trade stopped training people 25 years ago, according to Accuweigh Group founding chief executive Brenton Cunningham.
THE scales and weigh trade stopped training people 25 years ago, according to Accuweigh Group founding chief executive Brenton Cunningham.
As a result, businesses such as his, which supply and service weighing, inspection and packaging equipment, have struggled to attract and retain workers.
In an “oversaturated”, specialised field, and facing competition from the likes of Mettler-Toledo, Heat & Control, and Walls Machinery, Accuweigh has invested heavily in recruiting and training young workers to overcome the skills shortage in the sector.
“The main problem for us has been the lack of skilled employees in our field due to nil external training available and unreasonable pay expectations because of mining companies’ pay ability,” Mr Cunningham told WA Business News.
Compounding this issue is the fact that the 460 weighing and scales companies nationwide are all competing for workers from the same talent pool.
Before introducing any recruitment and training initiatives, Accuweigh first restructured its business in a way that would facilitate its growth strategy to buy smaller, competing businesses.
In 2008 the business, which was then turning over $24 million, was overhauled to introduced a more corporate structure, with a board of directors appointed along with non-executive chairman, Peter Abery, a former Vodafone managing director.
This allowed Mr Cunningham to step back from the day-to-day operations of the company and focus on growing the business through acquisitions.
“It allowed me to be more of a CEO and do what CEOs do,” he said.
Since then, Accuweigh has implemented an extensive training program with a full-time training manager, and introduced workplace changes designed to keep staff at the company.
These include: a paid profit share where workers of various branches receive a percentage of profits; family days; birthdays given off as leave; motivational seminars; and team-building exercises.
Mr Cunningham hopes to recruit a further 10 to 20 apprentices this year to join the 20 already working at the Willetton-based company.
He said despite losing many recruits to the mining sector, which can offer attractive and lucrative salaries, the strategy was proving successful.
However, so successful has Accuweigh’s training program been that rival companies have taken to headhunting some of the newly qualified staff.
“This continues to be a challenge for the business because these guys often get calls and then offers we may not be able to match,” Mr Cunningham said.
To alleviate this, Accuweigh has recruited seven workers on 457 visas and remains in contact with various immigration agents to source more workers.
The company also receives many enquiries on its website from people overseas.
Accuweigh now has a stabilised workforce, which Mr Cunningham said helped the business survive the global financial crisis, with expectations it will be in a good position to deal with recovery.
With turnover expected to be up by at least 25 per cent this year and staff turnover reduced from 15 per cent in 2008 to less than 1 per cent last year, Mr Cunningham is confident of the year ahead.
Mr Cunningham and business partner, Greg Brogan, established Accuweigh in Adelaide in 1992.
After developing the company to be the largest scale operation of its kind in South Australia, Mr Cunningham identified the huge potential for growth in WA and relocated to Perth, where he established Accuweigh’s first branch office.
A surge in enquiries for packaging and filling equipment led to a working relationship with Ross Waller, who owned a small packaging machine manufacturer called WeighPack Services.
In 1997, Mr Waller was admitted as a third partner due to his expertise in design, development and implementation of packaging equipment and complete automatic production lines.
Soon after, Accuweigh bought the Avery Scales agency for industrial products in WA, South Australia, Victoria and NSW, which led Accuweigh’s expansion into the eastern states.
Last year, the company acquired Brisbane-based Scale Compnents, which specialises in weighing and measurement products as well as developing software solutions for cubing, weighing, batching, weighbridges and other related applications.
