Contractors still search for answers after builder collapse

'I'd like to know where this guy is and what he's doing now... it's disgusting'.

Hayden Quaife. Picture: Cordell Richardson

CONTRACTORS are still battling in the wake of a building franchise's collapse and waiting for answers from a managing director who is nowhere to be found.

Summit Roofings Holdings director Hayden Quaife was left $150,000 out of pocket after the North Ipswich G.J Gardner franchise went bust in January but said about 90 per cent of that had been recouped by insurance.

The company was doing one roof every week on average for G.Js, at a value of between $10,000 and $15,000.

"We've got a pool of sub contractors that require work all day, every day so you've got to try and fill that void and the cash flow and the money that you lose comes out of the business and you've got to wait for insurance to pay out," he said.

"We've sourced work from elsewhere."

Mr Quaife said despite the setback, he was one of the luckier ones in the area.

"I talked to a lot of other contractors at the time and a lot of them were exposed for that money I got done for but they were uninsured," he said.

"So they're fighting in a very tough time."

G.J Gardner North Ipswich's managing director Pieter Burghout has not been heard from since the collapse.

Mr Quaife, like many other contractors, wanted answers and said G.Js head office didn't give "two s---s."

"I'd like to know where this guy is and what he's doing now," he said.

"He was full of promises, saying everything was fine. (G.Js head office) hasn't said boo to anyone about it. It's ridiculous. It's disgusting. They should be accountable for this as well because it's their franchisee. They get paid a lot of money from these guys."

Design-All Cabinets owner Richard Jones lost about $80,000 when the franchise went under.

"We're still battling through it," he said.

"We're never, ever going to make that money back. We've just got to keep moving on and deal with it.

"That's the way it goes."

Originally published as Contractors still search for answers after builder collapse