By this end of this month, Ballarat manufacturer MaxiTrans will have filled 70 positions needed to construct 395 heavy vehicle trailers for Coles.
In April, the company secured a $60 million contract to build Coles’ refrigerated and non-refrigerated trailers at its plant in Wendouree, Ballarat, which will feature components made at its plant in Hallam.
According to MaxiTrans manufacturing group general manager Anthony Roder, all of the new positions have been filled locally. Approximately 50 new employees are already on site, and by the end of June the Wendouree workshop will house about 500 employees.
“Off the back of the Coles announcement a couple of months ago, that really gave us the chance to get out there and people started talking and it’s been a very positive response,” Roder told The Courier.
About 20 of the 395 trailers to be produced are already in use by Coles, with MaxiTrans expecting to produce three trailers per day.
The project’s estimated completion date is February 2018.