Good news story – Bay City Group (Be inclusive)
Tony Nadjovski, Owner of Bay City Group has provided this story relating to Be Inclusive
Please provide a brief background and some context:
Bay City Group undertake water blasting and high-pressure cleaning works primarily for domestic construction sites but also some project building too ie schools and commercial/industrial sites (with Kane Constructions, Icon Co and Cockram Construction etc)
Acid-washing bricks being a core part of the business remit, they come in after the brickies finish construction to acid wash the bricks/blockwork to be dust free and shiny. Their scope also extends to concrete cleaning of paths and driveways around new homes and they are branching out into mortar defect rectification works.
Tony and his wife Aimee Najdovski were born and bred in Norlane and Corio (Aimee is a former GWYLF board member). The small business started in 2012 and is based in Norlane – a GROW target community.
What steps did you take to make a change?
Bay City Group joined GROW in early 2020 and that year put on two long term unemployed workers one through Matchworks and the other found through Tony having a conversation with a fellow parent at their children’s school.
What was different after the change?
‘I was born and raised in the 3214 postcode, I’m aware of the hardships and the opportunities to be had… One of our workers was COVID-displaced for over six months, the other just got stuck in the cycle of long-term unemployment… Both just needed a chance. Over twelve months later and they’re both working strong…’
What was the outcome?
‘We offer internal cleaning too and we have two subcontractors who help with that. This is an area we’d like to see increase as well as any recurring concrete cleaning work. A lot of our work is relationship based, low value/high volume work in nature with not much commitment to works. Ideally my aim is to build a baseline of work within the business. If we had a shopping centre for example that needed cleaning on a regular basis that commercial commitment would allow me to employ yet another long-term unemployed person.
We’re a small business of only five staff, we’re always busy but almost all our work is single jobs; once finished they are complete and we’re onto the next… Our challenge is to find a recurring contract. Maybe someone in the GROW collaboration could help us with this.’
Photo is Tony Nadjovski outside his premises at Norlane.
