Harley Sparke: On the Annual General Meeting

I am delighted to write that Mr Tony Mitchell was appointed as CEO after spending twelve months in his tenure as GM Manpower. We also appointed a new and very experienced CFO in Mr Wayne MacDonald, to replace Ms Chipo Wekare who resigned to expand her career. Chipo had served the company with great dedication and commitment since joining us in 2008.

I am also very happy to report that our safety performance has continued in a downward trend across almost all areas of our reporting and outcomes. We have adopted further systems, reporting mediums and ISO audits. Safety will always remain a crucially important aspect of our operation, and as such, we will continue to develop a safe work culture. Safety is everyone’s responsibility and this can only be enhanced by further developing that culture.

2017 has seen a tremendous amount of activity in mobilizing teams for new contracts and in reviewing costs, processes and systems. The dedication and commitment of our teams, often after hours, has been nothing short of remarkable, and demonstrates the commitment to their roles and to the company. As always, our field staff must be acknowledged for the tireless work they perform in the field, often in trying conditions, in order to keep our clients’ people, assets, and reputations safe.

The resource sector has seen significant profit upgrades and year-end financial results delivered by our major mining clients. Increased coal and iron ore prices and moderate rises in oil and gas have started to see these industries increase spending and operational support.

I am of the firm belief we have now started the upward swing in our respective sectors. The volume of work in the pipeline of real and potential projects represent the largest opportunities in the company’s history in terms of numbers of jobs and size of contracts.

Ultimately, I am more positive than ever before of the year ahead. We have settled into our new Head Office, upgraded our Gladstone office, and consolidated our regional operations. As organisations and humans, the times of greatest learnings are, ironically enough, the times of greatest challenge. We have certainly experienced this over the past two and a half years, and as a result become smarter and stronger.

I am genuinely excited about the opportunities that we will see in the coming year and of which we have never been better prepared to execute.