Coragulac Quarries

PHIL BOYD and STEVE LANG, Directors of Coragulac Quarries looks at the development of the business.

PHIL Boyd and Steve Lang worked for a number of years in the timber preservation industry. Both were always keen to own and run their own business and in 1996 purchased Coragulac Quarries.

Coragulac Quarries is situated fourteen kilometres north west of Colac in the heart of a strong dairy farming district and supplies high quality Volcanic tuff for many applications including road base, foundations, engineered fill and of course farm tracks for dairy cattle .We market a range of products starting with 5mm bedding dust through to 75mm rubble. We also produce high grade black scoria for drainage medium.

By late 1997 through change in marketing approaches, and hence increase production requirements, plant and equipment upgrades were necessary. The process of ascertaining and sourcing what we saw as the best replacement machinery began. We placed emphasis on price, performance, efficiency, operator comfort and ease of servicing. This criteria led us to purchase our first Liebherr machine, a PR732 dozer in 1998. This has proved to be a good choice as the machine has performed above expectation and we still have it today.

With ever increasing sales, we decided that we needed to increase our resource, and in early 1998, applied for an extension to our Work Authority. This was successfully completed in 1999.

In 2005 a neighbouring quarry owned by a local council was purchased by us, thus, again increasing our resource considerably.

Over the next few years, as finances allowed, further plant upgrades followed with purchases of two Liebherr wheel loaders, a Finlay 393 screen, a Finlay 683 screen, Komatsu Jaw Crusher, GD655 Komatsu Grader, twelve tonne Amman Roller and a small fleet of truck and trailer combinations.

A significant proportion of our customer base is dairy farmers and this industry has changed enormously over the last ten to fifteen years. Ever increasing farm sizes and cattle numbers are requiring much more extensive and wider laneways to move cattle quickly and efficiently between dairy and paddock.

We rarely now a day’s see a farmer come to the quarry with his own 4 or 6 metre truck, they now tend to use a contractor and expect that contractor to form, gravel, grade and roll their track into a finished job.

The Volcanic Tuff we produce at Coragulac is particularly good for this purpose. We supply some farms milking up to 1000 cows with excellent results. It is cost effective and not harsh on the cow’s feet, a big plus considering Vets fees. When we purchased this business in 1996 this industry accounted for about 90% of our turnover.

The commercial and civil construction industry has also come on board with builder contractors, concreters and seeing the value in our products.

Colac has a new hospital, new secondary college, a dairy products factory and an abattoir, to name just a few projects, in recent times and considerable volumes of volcanic tuff from Coragulac Quarries has been used extensively in the foundation work and roading at all of these.

The drainage rock we produce from the seam of Black Scoria is popular with plumbers and we distribute this over a wide area from Colac and surrounding districts through to Geelong.

We also see an area of growth in contract screening and plant hire, particularly in the area of specialized screening, such as compost, fertilizer and aglime. Our screens have been involved in this type of work from Melbourne to the Mallee and South Australia.We are a very small company, but we pride ourselves on offering our customers premium quality products and first class service.

Coragulac Quarries are foundation members of the CMPA and we see this organisation as an effective tool in assisting small quarries such as ourselves to remain viable and have a strong voice in the industry. We congratulate all concerned.

60 SECONDS WITH A VOTING MEMBER…

What is your name?
Phil Boyd
Who do you work for?
Coragulac Quarries
How many years have you worked for this business?
18 years
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
18 years
What is your role at the company?
Director
What does your job involve?
I’m involved in all aspects of the business including office work, dozer and loader operation, screening and crushing, maintenance, farm and cattle management, and the coffee machine.
What is the best part of your job?
Helping define the future of our business, interacting with our customers & assisting them and of course the most valuable asset we have- the staff we work with.

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