FUTURE’S JUST SPARKLING FOR TINSEL MAKER

GEELONG is one of Australia’s very last tinsel towns, with local producers of the festive decoration still going strong.

Bell Park-based business Glook ships the brightly coloured creations right across the country for both business and residential use.

Senior tinsel maker Ciaran O’Sullivan (pictured) said the family business, which had bought out two of its major Sydney competitors in the past, did a lot of corporate work, including for hotel chains.

“Our longest individual piece we do is 50m, but we do orders as big as 250km of tinsel,” he said. “This year we have introduced a new colour: rose gold. We’ve got about a dozen base colours now, including red, silver, gold, green, hot pink, lime, orange, purple, teal, white and black.”

Mr O’Sullivan said the busiest months were much earlier than people would expect.

“We start shipping our big shipments in the last week of July,” he said.

“We have to have the pallets moving out August and September, ready to be hung at the end of Melbourne Cup.”

Glook prides itself on producing a high-quality product that can be enjoyed for a number of years.

“The thing I love about it is it brings so many smiles to people’s faces when people get to use our stuff or see our stuff,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“And I like selling a quality product ... the problem with the quality of the stuff we manufacture, for us, is that it lasts.”