Well… 2020 has been a mixed bag…. Difficult to read, some highs and a lot of lows…

Like business across the world, Calco adapted very quickly to a strange new world. COVID rules, COVID plans, COVID co-ordinators, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, separate work areas, work from home, posters on hand washing, no visits / visitors, new ‘elbow’ shakes and a whole lot of online meetings. Most notably, however, was the effect of uncertainty and fear that COVID bought to our people and to our industry – employees, customers and suppliers alike. As a company we are very proud to say that as of December, we have not only been COVID free, but also maintained all our people in work safely. As the year winds up, we are conscious of the toll the effort to do this has taken, and we thank everyone across our organization – employees, board and management have all played their role. We are all looking forward to a break with fingers crossed for a more manageable 2021.

But, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Calco welcomed some long awaited new additions from Germany (which bought its own challenges!), with the installation of 2 new saws, timber picking equipment and stacking equipment. The equipment enables more efficient handling of timber and finished product, but just as importantly, makes our workplace much safer, eliminating some significant manual handling risks.

During October, we held a much more scaled down Breast Cancer and Cancer in general awareness program that resulted in a $6000 donation going to Australian Breast Cancer Research. We encouraged our employees to get regular health reviews, as well as seek medical advice for anything not quite right.

November brings the entertaining growing of moustaches to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Some moustaches impress, others just don’t…. but all in the name of a great and important cause.

With xmas around the corner, we reflect on how during the first stages of COVID we prepared ourselves for ‘the cliff’ that the housing industry was going to fall off. We feel incredibly fortunate that the industry in Victoria has held up, and we are looking forward to ongoing business with our valued customers into 2021, whatever challenges it throws at us!