Headaches after snow damage
BUSINESSES in northern Tasmania spent the past week repairing snow-damaged facilities with the large warehouse roof of SRT Logistics removed by a crane on Friday.
Across the road at the Statewide Independent Wholesalers site at Western Junction near the Launceston Airport, things were getting back to normal after stock levels were temporarily affected.
SIW general manager Drew Freeman said the facility, which supplies the state’s grocers and supermarkets including Woolworths and IGA, suffered roof damage to its temperature-controlled shed, water damage in warehouses and a large awning collapsed.
“We’ve been working all the way through with engineers and contractors this week and we’re back to sort of normal operations now,” he said.
“We were able to complete some rectification works … to make the building safe and put repairs in place.”
Mr Freeman said a business continuity plan was activated after the temperature-controlled shed was damaged.
He said Woolworths was able to temporarily fill the stock shortage from its mainland network.
“The rest of the products we supply to Woolworths and IGA across Tasmania weren’t really impacted, because we were only out of action for a matter of hours on that side of the business.”
Mr Freeman said the combination of snow and rain created the perfect storm.
“The weight of that snowfall across a wide span certainly put some pressure on the roof that it’s probably never experienced before.”
Mr Freeman said SIW was in a much better position than SRT Logistics over the road. “They’re trying to clean that site up so they can put in place their repairs, which are going to be more extensive than ours.”