Tequa Plumbing & Civil is already a well-renowned business within its local region, and this new initiative to wrap its equipment, raising awareness for mental health and showcasing value for employee welfare, only boosts its positive reputation, value and reach.
A second-generation family business that began in 1975 in regional Victoria, what started out as a plumbing-based business naturally migrated into a heavy civil stream, particularly over the last 10-15 years.
Daniel Smolenaars is one of the business’ longest standing team members, starting out as an apprentice in 1990 and now, 35 years on, Tequa Plumbing & Civil’s Managing Director. He’s seen the business throughout its expansions into new markets over decades.
“With plumbing you naturally have a civil background with the underground assets you install, including water, sewer, gas and stormwater, so overlaying that into the civil/utilities market was a natural fit for us as we expanded the company,” Smolenaars said.
Nowadays, Tequa is primarily focused on earthmoving, pipe laying, drainage, directional drilling and vacuum excavation services over and above the plumbing services they’ve provided the Gippsland community for 50 years.
“Being based in regional Victoria, it’s probably the diversification of our services that underpinned a secure employment in regional areas.”
‘Putting your money where your mouth is’
The Tequa team pride themselves on the large focus they devote to staff engagement and run several programs to help support the breadth of their people, including leadership programs, teambuilding programs, and mental health and awareness programs.
“We value our team; they’re like family to us,” Smolenaars said.
Tequa recently partnered with TIACS (This is a Conversation Starter), a free counselling initiative providing mental health advice from qualified professionals to the blue-collar community. TIACS was created by the founders of social impact workwear company TradeMutt, known around Australia for their loud, vibrant work shirts which were designed to start conversations about mental health, making an invisible issue impossible to ignore.
The Tequa team had an idea to go bigger than the uniform change and with that, decided to wrap one of its Vermeer vacuum excavators in TIACS branding – making the equipment and team stand out loud and proud wherever they are, and becoming its own conversation starter.
“We do the once-a-year celebratory events like R U OK? Day and Movember, but this equipment wrap is us saying we’re here all year round, fulltime, for our people,” Smolenaars said.
“It’s not just a poster on the wall – we’ve gone the full length.
“Every time that truck is driving around it’s a conversation starter. It’s generating curiosity amongst our team and our clients, so it goes beyond ‘feel good’ and ticking the box to actually putting your money where your mouth is.”
Looking for the same ‘family’attributes in the supply chain
Tequa’s value for the people it employs extends to the people it chooses to partner with in the supply chain, including its equipment dealer.
“We’re all about relationships – so whatever we can do to protect the relationship and longevity of our people; we look for the same attributes in people we deal with in the supply chain,” Smolenaars said.
Tequa’s relationship with its local Vermeer Australia team dates back to 2008 when it bought its first machine. Adding more and more Vermeer equipment to its fleet over the last 16 years, Tequa’s now has four horizontal directional drills and six vacuum excavators. The company claims the success of its ongoing relationship with Vermeer Australia comes down to the support received by the sales and service teams.
“Our local area manager, Adrian Greed, has been very good at getting us the right equipment at the right time. And he’s always available for after-purchase questions or queries,” Smolenaars said.
“The boots on the ground guys who manage and service our fleet are amazing – they go over and above.
“We owe it to Matt Frearson and Bryce Lewis – those two guys alone keep us coming back to Vermeer because of their infield expertise.”
For more information, call 1300 VERMEER or visit vermeeraustralia.com.au
This article was featured in the February edition of Trenchless Australasia.
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