WHEN K&S Industries in Shepparton was approached 18 months ago to assist Australia’s largest committed renewable energy project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, managing director, Victor Kyriakou unequivocally responded with, ‘yes.’
Having forged strong relationships with sawmills and industry networks over 20 years of experience and with the backing of its own sawmill in Nuriootpa in South Australia, K&S Pallets had the confidence to supply the Snowy Hydro project with over 60,000 pieces of radiata pine dunnage, within a concise time frame.
Used to meticulously secure over 20,000 seven tonne pipe segments on specialised transport trucks, which carried the sections from the factory site in Cooma to the boring site at Lobs Hole in the Kosciuszko National Park, the required specifications of the dunnage presented a challenge for K&S as well as an opportunity to innovate.
Calling on their industry connections for supply, amidst a timber crisis, K & S broke the mould by investing $200,000 in equipment upgrades along with a portable bandsaw mill in which the enterprise designed a cradle to specifically cut the pine dunnage to an angle to precision specifications for the Snowy Hydro concrete pipe segments.
With confidence, the backing of assets and an ability to innovate, K&S Pallets has not only played an important part in assisting Australia’s biggest renewable energy project but has grown a staggering 68 percent over the last two years.
Stating that the success of K&S is the result of a myriad of factors including the responsiveness of his exceptional staff, Victor said,
“Large volume orders don’t scare us even in the middle of a timber crisis. We say yes and then we work out how we’re going to do it. With a vast network of contacts and our own sawmill, we have the confidence to supply industry and when we commit to something we won’t let people down. This is how we were able to do something outside the square with the Snowy Hydro 2.0, this is how a little company in Shepparton got to support the largest committed renewable energy project in Australia.”
