Games deal flushes out more jobs for supplier
THE 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games has opened up massive opportunities for Molendinar-based portaloo supplier Splashdown, which is now tendering for huge events overseas.
Splashdown, which also has operations in the UK, opened up its Queensland business in 2015, partly to win contracts for the Games.
Director Richard Cave brought over project director Peter Coryndon from the UK in 2016 to run the Queensland business.
Mr Coryndon, whose CV includes a stint working as a carpenter on Kylie Minogue’s World Tour between 2005 and 2011, said the job offer was too good an opportunity to pass up.
He had been working at a UK-based company where he worked to design, install and operate temporary water and waste water infrastructure for 20 venues at the 2012 London Olympics.
“Splashdown Qld was a fledgling business – it had just started up – so there was a lot of introducing myself to event organisers and producers,” Mr Coryndon said.
The business was going up against industry giants such as Coates when tendering for events.
Mr Coryndon said its strategy, used for the Commonwealth Games, was to come up with a differentiated offering involving showers and vacuum-toilet systems.
These vacuum systems use air and minimal amounts of water to move waste, thereby reducing water consumption and the use of trucks through connecting directly to sewer systems.
“We won everything we tendered for at the Games,” he said.
“It was a big achievement and it was not an easy process.”
Mr Coryndon said organisers required them to obtain ambulant and accessible toilets for the Games, which now form part of its event offering. The overall deal was worth $10 million.
“It was the first time an organising committee for the Games had committed to such a different and sustainable solution,” he said.
“The normal picture in a major event is cabin-style toilets with 6L flushes and for them to go in and commit to our system saved them an awful lot of money in infrastructure and waste costs.”
He said while there was a stressful period leading up to the Games deadline, the 11-day event went smoothly for the most part.
“We learned a lot more about people’s habits. We learned more about how we could improve sanitation as a whole when approaching events,” he said
Mr Coryndon said the Games was not the only reason for establishing the business on the Gold Coast.
He said the lack of a “winter break” meant all-year-round jobs for the company. The company caters to between 150 and 200 events each year with recent jobs including the Bleach* Festival, Byron Writers Festival and Brisbane Festival.
Mr Coryndon said the Games enabled the business to compete for major events overseas through its Splashdown Global arm, also based in Molendinar.
Its rented fleet, which includes toilets made of medicalplastic that connect together, can be loaded on to containers and shipped anywhere in the world.
Mr Coryndon said the company was currently in talks with a provider to the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and was also bidding to work on Expo 2020 in Dubai.
“The business in Queensland has kept growing following the Games,” he said.
“The major change is Splashdown Global (also based at Molendinar) is able to comgrade pete in international markets for bigger events.”
He said the company was also hoping legislation was changed in Queensland and other states to require event organisers to provide ambulant toilets.