While the rest of Australia relaxes, some industrious workers are putting in the hard yards

THOUGH many businesses are winding down for Christmas — with workers encouraged to use up annual leave — some people remain flat out.

Financial expert Ross Greenwood.

THOUGH many businesses are winding down for Christmas — with employers encouraging their workers to use up annual leave — some people remain flat out.

They are chasing the Christmas and vacation dollar. Make money now and they will be set up for 2016; if they don’t, next year will be lean.

The issue for most of these businesses is to balance the demand from customers with the need to find staff and convince suppliers to keep delivering. If something slips, the sales are gone.

The industries that are busiest at this time of the year are many and varied.

Tourism and accommodation, restaurants and retailers are obvious, but it is their suppliers — food and beverage companies, healthcare, petrol stations, airlines, emergency services personnel and so many others — that do not find quiet during the holiday season.

For all business operators, there is the thorny issue of penalty rates to deal with and the need for skilled staff to keep the business operating.

There is also the need to find enough customer support staff to manage the extra demand and, if you have a physical retail store, security staff to prevent the “shrinkage” or theft that can bedevil this season.

In regards to staff, it is essential to set out the expectations of the job when a person joins you. Then it is equally important to set out the holiday planning and rostering well in advance, and to make certain it is fair for everyone.

With suppliers, the key is to get orders in early so they can also plan for their peak period. For both suppliers and staff, the worst thing coming into a peak period is getting a desperate, last minute call-up. However, casual staff and labour hire firms can be used to fill some of the inevitable gaps in rostering.

The other vital point during the Christmas season is to manage cash flow.

If there’s plenty of business during the holidays, cash flow should be pretty good , but there are still many suppliers and others who work on terms, so the classic cash flow problem of any business can arise if you overcommit to staff or stock for the lead-up to Christmas but the money does not arrive from clients until March or April.

Here, experience counts for plenty. The more Christmas periods you have survived, the more you will have learnt about managing the most manic time of the year.

WRAPPED UP IN CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

Visual Sood of Wrapall Packaging Solutions. Picture: Phillip Rogers

VIJAY and Vishal Sood are in the paper business, so when it gets to Christmas they are always wrapped up in their work.

Guildford West-based Wrapall Packaging Solutions has been around since 1976. The Sood family bought it in 2006 because Vijay, an engineer by training, wanted a defensive business that would benefit from his background. His son, a former merchant banker, came into the company a year or so later. Christmas is always their time to shine. “October, November, December; we go gangbusters,” Vishal said. “Typically the retailers will ramp up, so we experience eight times the demand for some products. It becomes very difficult. We will just live here: there’s no time to go home. With the staff, we run two shifts.”

The business is quite straight forward, it provides paper wrapping — especially for food products. Australia’s major retailers are among its customers — if they are selling food, then Wrapall is selling paper.

But like any supplier, it is also having to change and improve its game. Chinese suppliers are a major threat. To this end the company has invested in an integrated printing and production machine that allows them to make the hygienic paper for food wrapping in the one process. However, that is not all the company does. It also is the major paper supplier for home and business removal. Anybody who has ever wrapped their household goods in paper before moving has used Wrapall’s products.

And when do most people most commonly move? You guessed it: Christmas, already the busiest time of the year because of the extra retail trade.