Building supplier Showerama Products collapses; 100 jobs under threat

A well-known Moreton Bay region building supplies company founded in 1969 has appointed voluntary administrators with up to 100 jobs under threat.

More pain for building sector as a major supplier collapses.

A well-known Moreton Bay region building supplies company founded in 1969 has appointed voluntary administrators with up to 100 jobs under threat.

DW Advisory is seeking buyers for Narangba-based bathroom fixtures manufacturer Showerama Products after moving in as administrators last week.

The 53-year-old company has annual turnover of $11m with manufacturing and distribution facilities around the country.

A company representative told City Beat that Showerama was still operating and “it was business as usual.” Director Elizabeth Soul was not available for comment yesterday. It is not known how much money is owed to creditors of the firm.

Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) records show Showerama was allowed to carry out work worth up to $12m each year under a category two licence.

According to the company’s website, Showerama has manufactured more than half a million vanities and employed 100 Australians via company-owned manufacturing facilities, administration, sales teams, agents and subcontractors.

The company’s core business was the manufacture and distribution of bathroom cabinets and mirrors, bathroom vanities and cultured marble tops. It also manufactured and installed shower screens, sliding wardrobe doors, shelving and splash-backs.

Building sector facing more pain.

DW Advisory administrator Cameron Gray has advertised the business for sale with expressions of interest open until March 9. Gray did not respond to a request for further comment.

The Showerama administration follows the collapse of several other Queensland building supply companies as Covid-19 hit supply chains and causes a spike in prices.

Infinity Decking, which built high-end decking and outdoor living spaces for private and commercial clients, collapsed last week owing $1m after being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated trading losses.

The Tile Factory at 1041 Beaudesert Rd, Archerfield, owes creditors $5.6m after Covid-related supply chain issues sent it to the wall.

TRADE PUSH

The push by schools to encourage everyone into university is coming back to bite us in a big way.

Hastings Deering chief executive Mark Scott says many schools have long pushed university studies to the detriment of trades, and the result is a severe shortage of skilled labour now being felt across almost every industry in the country. Scott says the infrastructure industry alone is predicting the shortfall of skilled workers to be as high as 100,000.

Close to 2000 hopefuls applied to join Brisbane-based Hastings Deering’s apprenticeship program this year with 50 selected to join the company and its allied businesses in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Scott says the company deliberately targeted a diverse range of apprentices with the successful cohort a mix of school leavers, including mature age workers, women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The youngest is 16 and the oldest 32.

Mackay teenager Melanie Rigby says a trade is preferable over uni at this stage

Mackay’s Melanie Rigby, 18, was one of the successful applicants. The teenage says that while she was keen to go to university, undertaking an apprenticeship would give her practical skills with knowledge that would make study at university more relevant if she chose to do that later.

“My dad is an electrician and then he did an engineering degree,” she say. “He says it’s best to get the practical understanding in first because it also makes a degree, in the future, more interesting and relevant.“

Rigby is not alone in the cohort who have put university to the back burner, viewing an apprenticeship more attractive than a degree that might come with limited jobs prospects and a hefty HECS bill.

There is now fierce competition for skilled workers across all industries with figures showing that between March 2020 and July 2021 the number of trade and non-trade traineeships, across all parts of the workforce, has grown to 347,000, an increase of 27 per cent from pre-Covid 19 levels.

Originally published as Building supplier Showerama Products collapses; 100 jobs under threat