grow we had to have more people. It’s changed a lot since then,” said Dominic. McColl Smith serves the commercial market in Victoria. “It was a conscious decision to stay in that space as that’s where our experience lies,” says Dominic. Throughout their history, they have traditionally worked on government institutional work like schools and universities, but they have in the last couple of years diversified a bit more with private work. At the moment they are doing a project for Callaway Golf’s headquarters in Rowville, as well as working on a project for Bayside City Council. Their focus in the past few hears has been predominantly new builds and shop fitouts, priced in the $2 to $20 million range, with most work coming in at the $10 million value. “We want to try and keep the options open and stay diverse and not stay stuck in the education sector,” says Dominic. “Given that Jerad and myself are hands-on directors, we stay involved,” says Dominic about customer retention. “We do remain in contact with the clients after we’re awarded the project and attend as many meetings as we can. I think that hands-on approach and our availability to stay with the project is key. If things escalate and there’s a problem our clients are always free to call us. I believe we’re fairly transparent and open to discuss things.” “Traditionally in construction, things do go wrong at some point,” he elaborates. “We’re in a position now that it’s happening less and less, but if there is an issue we’re open for discussion and always prepared to work through it. That might hurt us financially but we think that it’s most important to NOVEMBER 2024
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