AFTER a tragic fire gutted the Glenray Industries commerical laundry last year, staff members are now just weeks away from getting the fresh start they deserve.
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The new laundry, which has been under construction on the corner of Browning and Stewart streets, is expected to be fully operational by the end of February.
Bathurst company Inland Building and Construction was tasked with the rebuild, and has been on site for the past four months.
Glenray’s general manager Kath Graham said the construction team had their work cut out, as the building had to be ready for lock up by December, 2018.
“It’s been a very tight schedule and Inland have worked tirelessly to do this,” she said.
“This is one of the quickest builds I’ve been a part of.”
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The fire in May last year not only cost Glenray its building, but also claimed all of its equipment, some of which had only been in place for a couple of months.
However, it has all since been replaced with state-of-the-art equipment that was manufactured in Europe. It has now arrived and is in the process of being installed on site.
Ms Graham said that the equipment, provided by Girbau, was one of the only things that didn’t go to plan during the rebuild project, but the company was in no way to blame.
“There was a delay in the equipment being delivered, so it has put us behind a little bit,” she said, later adding that work had since got back on schedule.
“It’s amazing state-of-the-art equipment and we will have the capacity to increase our tonnage to 70 tonne per week.”
Glenray’s commercial laundry enterprise, which is run with the assistance of supported employees, has been operating out of the former St Catherine’s Nursing Home since the fire.
Ms Graham said the supported employees found the transition to St Catherine’s tough and it also hadn’t all been smooth sailing with customers, but almost everyone had stuck by Glenray.
“Everybody has come together and some of them are doing their own pillowslips and things like that to help us out,” she said.
She said the employees saw moving back to their old home as an incentive and were eager to move in at the start of next month.
The first few weeks will be a period of transition for them as they slowly work up to getting the laundry fully operational.
“Moving to St Catherine’s was harder; this will be an easier transition because they’re excited about the prospect of being back,” Ms Graham said.
In addition to the new building, supported employees will get a fully equipped kitchen, to be funded from money raised at Glenray’s Melbourne Cup event.
Glenray plans to have an official opening of the building in March once everyone has settled in.
All of the organisation’s supporters and the wider community will be invited, the event serving as thanks for the outpouring of support Glenray had received since the fire.
