Book supplier EDSCO promises to overcome delivery issues

NERVOUS parents around Brisbane are hoping there is no repeat of the textbook debacle of 2018 next year.

Stafford-based Education Supply Company Pty Ltd is hoping to overcome delivery issues of school books and stationery.

NERVOUS parents around Brisbane are hoping there is no repeat of the great textbook debacle of 2018 next year.

You might recall that scores of Brisbane children were left without essential books and stationery at the start of the school year after Stafford-based Education Supply Company Pty Ltd, commonly known as EDSCO, outsourced delivery to a third party company.

City Beat was this week contacted by one parent from northside Wooloowin State School concerned that EDSCO has again been contracted to supply book packs for 2019.

“I didn’t get some supplies until April and some people were even waiting until May,” the disgruntled parent says, adding some items never arrived at all. ‘”Why have they been given the contract again?”

Michael Young, whose father Maurie founded EDSCO in 1985, conceded to City Beat yesterday that last year’s decision to outsource distribution had been a disaster.

“We are bringing it all in-house this year with our own packers based at Stafford,” says Young, who took over the business from his father a few years back.

“If the outsourcing had worked, it would have allowed us to grow but unfortunately it didn’t and now we have to work to bring people back.”

Young points out that prior to last year’s debacle, EDSCO had 14 years of not having missed a school delivery. “We were not the only small book distributor caught out last year,” he says. He said the company was handling book supplies for about 30 schools this year.

NOT OUR DECISION

THE Education Department yesterday appeared to be distancing itself from EDSCO, noting there is no contract between the department and the company regarding book supplies for individual schools.

A department spokesman said principals, in consultation with the school community, make decisions about the day-to-day administration of their school to best meet the needs of their students. This includes decisions around private providers for services such as book supplies. EDSCO had served the Wooloowin State School community for more than a decade and was selected as the school’s book supplier for next year with the endorsement of the school’s P&C executive. This followed assurances from the company about improvements to their systems.

PORT OF CALL

CASHED-UP tourists getting off the city’s new cruise terminal out at the Port of Brisbane in a couple of years will no doubt be heading to the delights of the Queen’s Wharf casino or transferring to a flight to Cairns.

But according to Port of Brisbane Authority boss Roy Cummins, they should hang around and explore one of the city’s best kept secrets.

Cummins told a business lunch this week that the story behind the port’s success was one that few locals knew about. “We have one of the best ports in the country,” Cummins told the lunch proudly. Cummins is right in that the port, which has largely developed from reclaimed land at Fishermans Island, has been a story that has largely flown under the radar over the past 40 years. The port last year handled 33 million tonnes of cargo, including everything from cars and fridges to wheat and coal.

HAVE A HEART

IMPEDIMED, the medical device maker born out of Brisbane, is now holding trials with patients suffering from bad hearts. The company’s device is already used to check for fluid build ups in the limbs of cancer patients.

Now Impedimed’s eye is on heart failure, yesterday announcing having recruited patient No 1 in a 200-person trial. About 25 per cent of patients discharged from hospital after a dodgy-ticker related problem are readmitted within 30 days. If Impedimed’s device can identify fluid problems in the heart early on costly re-hospitalisation can be avoided.