General News
26 August, 2023
$1m financial booster
A NATIONAL conference involving more than 260 delegates has injected more than $1 million into the economy of the Far North.
The annual Clark Rubber franchise conference was held in Cairns last week and involved franchisees and their suppliers.
The Pullman Cairns International hotel hosted the first two days of plenary sessions and the Cairns Convention Centre hosted a two-day supplier expo and formal gala dinner and awards night.
A welcome dinner was held at Rainforestation at Kuranda, a master class was hosted at Flames of the Forest, Port Douglas, and Crystalbrook’s Paper Crane restaurant was the venue for the supplier dinner.
Clark Rubber director Edward Plowman said conference organisers worked with Cairns Regional Council and Tourism Tropical North Queensland who supported the event.
He said he, fellow director Graeme Goldman and chief executive Anthony Grice were delighted with the Cairns conference and the warm welcome the whole network received while in the region.
“Many delegates have chosen to extend their stay and make it a family or personal holiday,” Mr Plowman said.
“Clark Rubber are very committed to the local region and Far North Queensland. Queensland is making up much of Clark Rubber’s growth plans leading to 2030,” he said.
“Clark Rubber’s strategic plan is to grow the network to 150-plus large format retail stores by 2030 and significantly expand the mobile service fleet, with a key focus on pool and pool service.
“The brand is making significant investment into their people both at franchisor and franchisee level and undergoing significant investment into their IT systems and processes together with plans to roll out McCartney designed new format Store2025.
“Clark Rubber is an icon of Australian retailing with a history dating back to 1946. With 61 stores nationally, our stores are specialists in pools, foam and rubber – a truly unique position in the Australian retail market.
“With such a broad product range, our customer base is equally diverse and includes families, tradies, hobbyists, and commercial customers to name but a few.”
Cairns Clark Rubber franchisees Karen Moes and Rob Bradley are 2022’s Clark Rubber 2022 franchisees of the year.
The Cairns store opened in Cairns in July, 2002 and has been a mainstay Cairns business for the past 21 years.
Ms Moes has been in Cairns for over 50 years and Mr Bradley is a third generation Cairns family.
Both families have all been to school in Cairns, including secondary and tertiary education.
