Collie manufacturing plant a State first

A vacant shopping complex in the heart of Collie is set to be at the core of Western Australia’s COVID-19 recovery, chosen as the location for a manufacturing facility for surgical masks. Big Start Global, an international trading company which pivoted to importing face masks at the beginning of the pandemic, now has a machine in the final commissioning phase to manufacture its own. The company has leased the space on Steere Street which was previously occupied by Target Country and will become the State’s first dedicated mask manufacturing plant. The group first became involved in the personal protective equipment industry when it used relationships overseas to help the State Government procure face masks, gloves and gowns and will now hope to be the Government’s PPE provider through the Problem and Opportunity Statement process which will start at the end of January. BSG director Jack Quigley said the new facility would be critical to assuring a supply chain of PPE for Western Australia as uncertainty surrounding the global pandemic continued. “We don’t know what will happen when our borders open, nor do we know when a vaccine will be available to the whole community,” he said. “This facility will not only create jobs, but it gives WA preparedness and surety of supply with the potential to scale-up in response to the State’s needs. “Even if a vaccine is found, it will take time to roll out across the population and as we now know, we need to future-proof our State by offering supply chain certainty for any health threats that may emerge beyond this current pandemic.” BSG chief operating officer Sam Piantadosi said Collie was the perfect location for the facility. “We were attracted to Collie first and then we saw this was an available facility,” he said. “We saw that it was a nice floor plan for having some manufacturing and we also saw it had the appropriate power for the machines we are using. “Another attraction of Collie is there is a lot of skilled labour here, we not only need people who will be boxing the masks and machinists who will be running the machine, but we need electricians and people to manage the technical aspects of the machine.” Up to 12 machines will be made available with a capacity to produce up to two million masks per month, depending on demand. The company is hoping the facility will be fully equipped by the end of January, when the State Goverment’s Problem and Opportunity Statement process begins. Collie shire president Sarah Stanley and other councillors toured the facility and met Mr Piantadosi and technicians on Friday.