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Australia’s Mining Monthly – AIMEX
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August 07
With its Australian Securities Exchange listing completed, a major mine site accommodation provider is putting its concepts on show.
Accommodation can make the difference between keeping and losing staff in the mining industry. With staff shortages biting and mining salaries climbing, sometimes the quality of accommodation can prove the difference between staff going or staying at a mine site.
That means the days of basic dongas and communal ablution blocks are long gone. Resort-style living is the call for miners, along with resort-level food and resort-style recreational facilities such as gymnasiums and even swimming pools.
This approach has led to the need for mine site accommodation providers to offer more sophisticated services and infrastructure.
The MAC Services Group, which has four accommodation villages set up in the Bowen Basin, is an expert in providing mine site accommodation.
The MAC is planning to put its latest village lifestyle concept on show at Stand 6912 at this year’s AIMEX. It will be highlighting its approach to the design, construction and servicing of accommodation villages for the resources industry.
SAFE AS HOUSES
The MAC offers a “360 degree business model”, offering a complete service from the purchase of land and gaining of regulatory approvals, to the design, construction and management of villages, including ancillary services such as cleaning, catering, training, travel and entertainment.
Its display at AIMEX will include a sneak peek at some of its latest custom-designed en-suite rooms, a self contained two bedroom cabin and an architectural model of the latest MAC village under construction, incorporating landscaped accommodation, sports facilities, tavern and dining facilities.
With its ASX float completed in April the company raised more than the $73.5 million it was seeking. Some of that will be used to expand its offering further in Queensland and into Western Australia.
The MAC executive chairman Kevin Maloney told Australia’s Mining Monthly in April that the company had employed one-time Spotless Services Queensland client services manager and WA operations manager Andrew Tate to set up the company’s WA operation. Indeed, Maloney has had prior experience in the west. He was with Elders Resources back in the 1980’s- including a stint as CEO of Elders Resources Finance- when it was involved with several resources plays over here.
The MAC has a war chest of potentially up to $100 million to fund its expansion efforts. Maloney said the funds from the float would allow it to fully claw back the money owing on its $80 million banking facility. “Our banks have agreed to top that banking facility up to $100 million,”he said.
Maloney founded The MAC, which stands for The Marley Accommodation Centres, named for Maloney Holdings which controls the Maloney family’s interest in the company, about 11 years. Back then it was involved with providing accommodation for construction camps.
Life was simpler then. Dongas were the name of the game. These days resort living is the industry’s demand.
Maloney said due to the pressure to get projects completed The MAC had upgraded its Moranbah facility from 250 rooms to 1200 rooms in two facilities. “Plus we did a complete upgrade of the facilities form bunkhouse style to 100 percent motel-style rooms,” he said. “We’ve gone from camp-style complexes to villages. We take on this whole concept of better accommodation. We were the first to put in fridges and TV’s, and separate air conditioners and en-suites. Now we’ve gone to resort-style rooms in Queensland. We’re treating the people more like guests than mining contractors.”
However, while it was probably one of the first to head down the resort-style accommodation in mining accommodation, The MAC is nor on its own in this regard, what sets The MAC apart from other mine site accommodation players is that it will take full control of a village, right from the purchase of the land, through the construction of buildings and running the accommodation village. It will even handle council approvals.
In some cases the company will speculate on how mining projects will pan out and lay the groundwork for the accommodation facilities for the mining companies.
“That’s what we did with our Coppabella project,” Maloney said. “We went in and acquired the land and got all the council approvals. The mining companies saw what we’d done and rather than doing it themselves they came to us.
“A lot of companies like it because they are not sure what size their project is going to be. We can start them off with a 100-man village and have the ability to build it up.”
Having these abilities has led The MAC to grow into a multi-disciplinary organisation. Its capabilities include maintenance, a linen service, construction and catering. It has more than 350 staff.
The MAC has four accommodation villages in the Bowen Basin, situated at Nebo, Dysart, Moranbah and Coppabella. The MAC’s prospectus reveals these villages are forecast to provide 1.2 million available room nights from the more than 3300 rooms it has there in the 2007-08 financial year.
“We had to do our own maintenance service and then we found that everyone else in the town sites was using it.” - The MAC executive chairman Kevin Maloney
Maloney said the company’s expansion into the maintenance and linen services had even helped add to it bottom line.
“Maintenance is a big thing in these accommodation centres,” he explained. “We had to do our own maintenance service and then we found everyone else in the town sites were using it.” It seems The MAC’s approach to the mine site accommodation game is also meeting favour with some big financial backers. Maloney said the Lowry, Smorgon and Packer families had all put money into the company. “They all love the model,” he said.
Maloney said after leaving elders in the early 1990s he had gone into quarrying with Readymix before an opportunity arose to become a silent partner in a construction camp building business.
“The first venture didn’t go well so I had to learn about the business and make up the losses of $600,000 from that first effort,” he said.
“Then I got asked by some big clients to look at some permanent village concepts.”