Ken McLeod set for retirement after securing cool $1.5m sale

A slice of Townsville’s business community that kickstarted hundreds of careers will change hands at long last after the owner’s retirement.

Ken McLeod with Neville Smith from Burgess Rawson at the former RST airconditioning warehouse in Condon. Picture: Evan Morgan

A slice of Townsville’s business community that kickstarted hundreds of careers will change hands at long last after the owner’s retirement.

The RST airconditioning warehouse in Condon recently sold for $1.5m, but even with such a lofty price tag attached, owner Ken McLeod admits it was still a bittersweet moment to finally say goodbye.

“It’s actually a bit heartwrenching in the end, we started and ran RST for 38-odd years. We opened the premises out here in ‘98, so we spent about 25 years here,” Mr McLeod said.

“But, you have to retire.”

He said there was ‘no big hurry’ to sell off and part with the many assets the business had accrued in its decades of service to the Townsville community.

RST Airconditioning owners, Ken McLeod and his wife Ann at the 30-year anniversary of the store.

“I sold all the sheet metal we had to a young fella’ starting up. I gave him a nice, cheap price for that, because I just thought ‘bugger it, I’ll help him out too’. The rest I either sold off or gave to friends of mine,” Mr McLeod said.

Giving a helping hand to people just starting out isn’t far from the RST brand, with Mr McLeod approximating that over 100 apprentices got their start under his banner.

Ann & Ken McLeod from RST Airconditioning in 2000 Picture: Bryan Lynch

“It’s always been my belief that you can’t whinge about there not being enough tradesmen if you won’t put apprentices on,” Mr McLeod said.

“I think we trained something like 130 apprentices in my time with RST, in the refrigeration and electrical trades. We’ve done our little bit to try and put more out in the field.”

Mr McLeod said there was plenty of fond memories for him within the industry, including some of his first jobs as an apprentice starting out.
“We put the first chiller into the sugar shaker in town when I was in my first year as an apprentice, so I’ve really seen everything from the smallest to the largest.”

Ken McLeod from RST Airconditioning in 2006.

Burgess Rawson partner Neville Smith said making sure that the property found the right buyer had been key during the process.

“Ken was obviously very passionate about the asset and he didn’t want to let it go for a cheap price,” Mr Smith said.

“The solution was to find an end user for the site and we were able to find a southern based investor in order to fulfil that vision.

“We’re in quite a strong and buoyant market right now where a lot of these facilities are very hard to try and replace at the same sort of value. By the time you buy the land and build on it, you’re in the tin for a lot of money already.”

Originally published as Ken McLeod set for retirement after securing cool $1.5m sale