MouldMen grabs place to call home

GOLD Coast business MouldMen has purchased premises in the Molendinar industrial precinct for $506,000 including GST.

The company, which specialises in mould removal, has bought a 232sq m property at 2/37 Expansion St to function as its head office.

MouldMen is headed up by Gerard Murtagh, who founded the firm after the 2011 Queensland floods.

“We had a graffiti removal operation and it was after the floods when we realised there was a need for a mould removal company that did it differently,” he said.

“We use a chemical process, pioneered during the clean-up of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, rather than cutting and removing plaster to get rid of the mould.”

Mr Murtagh, who had been renting premises in Loganholme, said he had been looking to relocate after his wife started work at Hot Tomato and they bought a house on the Gold Coast.

He said the location suited the firm, which employed technicians working between Lismore and Noosa, and did not require them to visit the depot each day.

“We changed our business model to give our employees more freedom,” he said.

“So instead of the technicians having to come into the depot before and after they finish their shifts, they can just take the vehicles home and start at their first job the next day. We also try to schedule jobs near where they live.”

Mr Murtagh said the business was seeing rapid growth due to their business model and investment in marketing.

He said the firm, with 12 staff, had grown revenue 120 per cent in the final quarter of FY17 and expected to double its staff by August next year.

Ray White Industrial and Commercial director Steve Macgregor, who marketed the property, said there was strong demand from owner-occupiers for space in Molendinar.