ToThink Engineering is supplying key quarry equipment
by Adam Daunt, Quarry Magazine, January 2024
Darren Toth, director of ToThink Engineering, discusses the skills shortage and how it is affecting suppliers.
As an equipment supplier, what would you say has been the main issue facing the quarrying industry?
From my perspective, the main issue is a lack of experienced people and, quite often, simply a lack of people in general. It’s just about everywhere, not just quarries.
What do you believe has led to employee shortage in the sector?
There’s been a lot of people moving between industries. The post COVID worker shortages opened up a lot of opportunities for people to do something new.
More specifically, many people moved over to the building and construction industry to meet the demand generated by the many large infrastructure projects going on.
Furthermore, many of the people around retirement age kept working through 2020 and 2021 and have since retired now that they can travel.
What do you believe has led to employee shortage in the sector?
There’s been a lot of people moving between industries. The post COVID worker shortages opened up a lot of opportunities for people to do something new. More specifically, many people moved over to the building and construction industry to meet the demand generated by the many large infrastructure projects going on.
Furthermore, many of the people around retirement age kept working through 2020 and 2021 and have since retired now that they can travel.
What can the industry do to attract new skilled talent?
I don’t have a simple answer other than to say that I think things will settle down and balance out over the next couple of years.
What has ToThink done to ensure industry wisdom and experience is retained?
We have been adding to our workforce and we plan to continue to do so.
What is the most important lesson you have learned while working with the quarrying industry?
I learnt that the number of experienced people with strong technical skills is diminishing in the industry as whole. This includes producers, equipment suppliers and those who provide various services to the industry.
For this reason, I think we need local businesses to step up and produce equipment that designed and built here with as many locally sourced parts as is practicable. There are multiple benefits that come with Australian manufacturing: real-time technical support from local people who are the designers of the equipment and a retained ability to produce machines for our industry here in Australia and neighbouring countries.
How does ToThink plan to support the quarrying industry in 2024?
We strive to be the best value equipment supplier by designing locally, building quality machines, pricing competitively and supporting our customers. We are planning for continued growth in 2024. From an equipment and parts/hardware supplier standpoint I think availability and technical knowhow provides a great amount of support to the industry.
