Welcome to the Central Coast Sun

Summary of news and initiatives from the GWS region.

By Red Dwyer

Pathways for disadvantaged

MARIST Youth Care’s new Skills Development Centre, in Blacktown, is providing pathways for young disadvantaged people into employment by providing them with work ready skills. The program has already placed its first intake of 12 teenagers, between the ages of 16 and 19 in general construction, sheet metal and maintenance roles.

Woolies sells businesses

WOOLWORTHS, headquarted at Norwest Business Park has sold its Dick Smith stores for $20 million to private equity group, Anchorage Capital Partners, and has signed an agreement to sell its interest in its Indian business, Woolworths Wholesale, to Infiniti Retail Ltd, owned by India's Tata Sons, for $35 million.

Bluestar NSW HQ

LOGOS Property will develop the $35 million NSW headquarters of Bluestar Logistics, in Erskine Park, an established hub for logistics companies, which includes Woolworths, Linfox, DHL and Coles. Bluestar will pay rent of about $4 million annually for 4.23 hectares of space over two warehouses.

Hub on exhibition

THE department of Planning & Infrastructure has on public exhibition the proposed Eastern Creek Business Hub providing retail, open space and limited tourism land uses. Components will include bulky goods/large format retail, convenience retail and associated recreation components. Around 11 hectares of retail uses proposed, with around 20 hectares of open space and recreation. Capital investment value: $129 million.

Stabling facility delayed

TRANSPORT for NSW said plans to deliver a new train stabling facility at Emu Plains had been delayed, as additional train stabling facilities are not expected to be required for a number of years, a review showed.

GWA relocated

LISTED company GWA Bathrooms and Kitchens, has leased 2378 square metres of office space, in a one and a bit floors in a five-storey building, in Norwest Business Park, at $275 per square metres. About 160 staff will relocate from various locations.

Council seeks manager

LIVERPOOL City Council has advertised for an economic development manager to implement the city’s economic strategy.

$8.4 million plant

NSW Premier and Minister for Western Sydney, Barry O’Farrell, has opened the new, $8.4 million A2 Milk processing facility in Smeaton Grange that will directly create 25 new jobs. Mr O’Farrell said the partly Australian owned company was expanding its processing facilities to meet growing demand. Previously, A2 Milk was processed in Queensland.

Manufacturer streamlines

FURNITURE manufacturer and retailer Fantastic Holdings has streamlined its warehouse process and optimised its supply chain performance across the company’s operations. The company has implemented Manhattan SCALE product suite at its main 360,000 square foot purpose built distribution centre, at Fairfield. Two on show in Berlin DELKOR Rail Pty Ltd, at Regents Park, and Pacific Rail Engineering Pty Ltd, at Chipping Norton, were two of six NSW companies attending Innotrans, the world's largest exhibition focused on the rail transport and related engineering sector.

Centre for sale

THE sub-regional Fairfield Forum shopping centre, on a 4282-hectare site in the Fairfield CBD s for sale. Fully leased the centre’s net income if $3.6 million annually.

Defence renews lease

PLANS by Qube Logistics to set up a $1 billion freight hub, at Moorebank, could be delayed after the Defence Department exercised its right to renew a lease over the proposed site for another five years, to 2018. Qube Logistics expects Defence will still move off the site by late 2014 or early 2015. The federal government is pushing ahead with plans for a $1.6 billion intermodal facility on land, opposite Qube’s proposal, which will be vacated by Defence by the end of 2014.

Officeworks closure

OFFICEWORKS will close its outlet in George Street, in the Parramatta CBD, on November 6 and relocate to North Parramatta

Functions on racecourse

THE Sydney Turf Club has lodged a DA with Parramatta City Council for the use of Rosehill Racecourse for non-racing events including functions, conferences, exhibitions, shows and up to six concerts in a calendar year. Approval is also sought for a Place of Entertainment on race days.

Property sold for $2.03m

A PHARMACEUTICAL owner-occupier has paid $2.03 million for a 1205-square-metre freestanding office and warehouse property, at 81 Carnarvon Street, Silverwater, formerly occupied by Homart Pharmaceuticals, which has relocated to Rydalmere.

Refining to cease

SHELL ceased refining at its Clyde Refinery, on the Camellia peninsula, on September 30. The company announced in July that the refinery would be converted into a dedicated fuel terminal.

Comments on Parramatta Square

PARRAMATTA City Council is seeking comments on a draft DCP for Parramatta Square (formerly known as Civic Place), bounded by Macquarie Street, Smith Street, Darcy Street and Church Street Mall, Parramatta. The draft DCP is a proposed amendment to the Parramatta City Centre DCP 2007. The draft DCP will guide future development and use of Parramatta Square.

City a prime target

AGEING unit blocks in the inner west and Parramatta will become prime targets for redevelopers if the state government’s proposed overhaul of strata laws proceeds. Parramatta city centre would be hight on the agenda, given it has been under development pressure for years due to the projected growth in the area.

Threat to acquisition

THE ACCC is threatening to block Woolworths’ acquisition of an undeveloped supermarket site, at Glenmore Ridge. The commission’s preliminary view was that the proposed acquisition was likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the local market by preventing the entry of a rival supermarket.

Bidders compensated

LOSING bidders in the competition to run the privately operated North West Rail Link will each be compensated by up to $10 million of taxpayers’ money. The government says the compensation promise, outlined in a briefing to industry this week, is, in part needed because of the damage to the state’s reputation caused by cancelled rail projects over the past decade.

New home for disabled

FIVE people with disabilities have a new, custom designed place to live in following the opening of a new facility in Sydney’s west by the Thorndale Foundation. The Kingswood residence with its modern design, specific floor plan and new fittings is a far cry from the where they have been up until now - cottages built back in the 70s at Orchard Hills. Penrith-based building company, ZAC Homes designed and constructed the centre at no cost to the organisation.

Family businesses overlooked

WITH an estimated wealth of $4.3 trillion and an average annual turnover of $12 million family businesses make a substantial contribution to the Australian economy. However there is currently no person in the government who looks after the interests of family businesses, says Family Business Australia CEO Philippa Taylor. “The family business sector is usually lumped together with small business and not consulted about policies that affect it,” she said.

ONE of Australia’s leading corporate education companies, PD Training, has targeted Western Sydney as a region of strong potential for its training programs after announcing it has been accredited by the prestigious International Association for Six Sigma Certification (IASSC).

The accreditation means that PD Training is the only Australian based firm qualified to deliver the globally recognised business benchmark training.

“The Six Sigma Accreditation has been a global business improvement movement for more than 20 years, but Australia has lagged behind without a domestic provider of the global standard of accreditation,” said PD Training CEO, Paul Findlay.

“The accreditation will enable us to deliver world class business improvement training programs to Australian businesses resulting in improved capacity to compete in a global environment.”

Six Sigma is one of the most popular business management methodologies in history. Its global implementation has seen a tremendous return on investment for participating businesses.

Mr Findlay said Western Sydney is one of Australia’s most dynamic markets in terms of diversity of business and regional growth. He said the region had a sophisticated business culture that demanded world class education.

PD Training is an Australian business success story; having been started by its two founders just four years ago from their kitchens. In the years since foundation the business has grown its annual turnover 9-fold every year and their staff 5-fold.

The business recently opened its first office in the US, one of the world’s most competitive corporate education markets. With around 6,000 training organizations in Australia, how does a business evolve in just four years from start-up to become a leader in a field with global export aspirations?

The key, says Mr Findlay lies in the systems the business has developed and its unfaltering focus and investment in technology and teaching talent that enables clients book their course effortlessly, anywhere, anytime and then engage in a world class learning experience.

The systems developed by PD Training mean that everything is systemised with a single click through its website and back-end cloud based custom built systems.

The administration process of getting the initial quote, to choosing a trainer, courses, room bookings, invoicing, and feedback from both the participants and the trainer takes about 45 seconds and can be done on a tablet.

“In this way, we can look at a job from every perspective and get 360 degree feedback,” said Mr Findlay, who worked as a management consultant before starting PD Training with corporate trainer, Karen Winfield.

“Our administration is cloud based and paperless. This greatly reduces our overheads and allows us to focus on delivering outstanding services to our clients.

“From a business continuity point of view, if our office burnt down tomorrow, it would have no affect on our ability to trade.

“We’d just go down the road and buy some tablets and resume business, because all of our information is held in the cloud.”

PD Training has successfully married technology to a people based business. 

“Our focus is on people - both staff and clients. We are constantly working to meet our client’s needs to provide the best possible training experiences,” Mr Findlay said.

For more information about PD Training options email west@pdtraining.com.au or visit www.pdtraining.com.au