Condev Construction founders Tracy and Steve Marais fought back tears as they discussed why they had “no choice” but to put their Gold-Coast based company into liquidation.
The business owners met with developers on Monday as a final plea for help, asking for $25 million in financial aid to keep the company afloat.
Tracy Marais said although the company had a “very good relationship” with developers, they all chose to decline.
“We have no choice without our developer’s support,” a tearful Ms Marais said.
“It’s very disappointing that developers didn’t come to the party and we really do believe that they didn’t understand the market enough.”
However, Ms Marais says the developers have put up their hands to take on Condev’s thirteen existing projects, including six on the Gold Coast.
Photo: Facebook
The company said it can “easily” pinpoint where it all went wrong, blaming soaring material costs, COVID, and the recent floods.
According to Ms Marais, the company met with quantity surveyors back in October 2020 and was told the prediction was a 4% decrease in the market; however, fast-forward to March 2022 and the market has had an increase of approximately 18-24%.
“That’s before we have a shortage of labour, shortage of materials, delays, and of course these floods that have come along and broke the camel’s back,” Ms Marais said.
“We’ve got jobs that have been affected by a million dollars worth of storm flood damage.”
Steve Marais said the struggles within the industry proved all too much for the business to handle, as he choked back tears.
“I’ve been in the industry for 42 years and have loved every moment of it, except the last 15 months,” Mr Marais said.
“The industry has its challenges, it’s got its problems, I think it substantially needs re-collaboration. Builders need to require more respect.”
Photo: Facebook
Mr and Ms Marais agreed they did everything they could to respectfully run their business.
“At the end of the day, we can only say that we did the best we could and we treated everyone equally and fairly to the best of our ability,” Ms Marais said.
The couple sent out an email to their 100+ employers on Tuesday night advising them they had no requirement to be at work on Wednesday.
“We wish you all the very best. We love you guys. You’ve been family,” the email read.
