Concrete firm has sights cemented on new home

Concrete firm Wagners is looking to cement a base on the Sunshine Coast as it doubles its production network in the next three years.

Construction of the wharf at the Wagners plant at Pinkenba using Fibre reinforced polymer and earth friendly concrete. Picture: Contributed

CONCRETE firm Wagners is looking to cement a base on the Sunshine Coast as it doubles its production network in the next three years.

Company founders and brothers John, Denis, Neill and Joe Wagner made national headlines last month when they won a $3.75 million defamation case against broadcaster Alan Jones and radio stations 2GB and 4BC.

Their company also opened an international airport in 2014, which it built without government funding at Wellcamp, west of its Toowoomba head office.

Wagners CEO Cameron Coleman said the company had lodged an application to build a concrete batching plant in Sunshine Coast Industrial Park at Bells Creek.

The company currently operates plants in the Western Downs, Toowoomba, Wacol and Pinkenba but Mr Coleman said there were plans to take that total to nine plants in south east Queensland in the next two or three years.

He said the Sunshine Coast plant would likely be the most northerly base, with the rest focused on servicing the Ipswich and Gold Coast regions through to the New South Wales border.

"For us it is about establishing concrete plants within a radius we can reach from our cement and aggregate business,” Mr Coleman said.

He baulked at confirming the amount Wagners would invest in the expansion but said it was a significant amount of money.

The company's products will be made for residential, commercial and large scale infrastructure construction.

Mr Coleman said Wagners weren't targeting any specific projects but noted Bruce Highway upgrades were scheduled north and south of the Coast.

"The attraction to us is it (Sunshine Coast) is a very popular location and it is showing signs of continued growth,” Mr Coleman said.

"Larger infrastructure projects are coming that way.”

He said Wagners hoped to have their Bells Creek batching plant operational by the middle of next year.