The IWS Haulage business is based in Jacobs Well on Queensland’s Gold Coast and reckons it has an emerging leader in the team.
The business has been run and developed by Mick and Michelle De Winter as a family business over the years, but now there is a third member of the team. Their daughter Letitia had been working for a long time in the mining industry in Western Australia and decided to return to the Gold Coast and was interested in working in the family business.
Letitia does have a background in road transport, her grandfather was Terry Nolan of Nolan’s Interstate Transport, and added to that with three years working in the Nolans operation in Gatton, helping out the family.
More recently, Letitia has been awarded one of the four Queensland Trucking Association/Daimler Emerging Leaders Scholarships for 2020. The program is about identifying emerging leaders in the industry, developing their capability to contribute to the productivity, efficiency and safety of their employer/business to lead them into the future. The scholarship offers a unique opportunity to further experience the industry and establish connections with people who can advance her leadership aspirations.
Apart from offering financial support of $1,000 towards costs of engaging in opportunities and experiences to broaden leadership aspirations, there is also one-on-one coaching sessions with a specialist consultant about analysing different aspects of leadership, like SWOT analysis, plus a mentor program.
It is clear that, while Mick and Michelle may have to put any retirement plans on hold for a while, the chance to be able to pass the business across into capable hands, with an emerging leader in the team, some time in the future, will be very satisfying for them.
The operation is based in an area which many would be unable to envisage as being on the Gold Coast. The settlement is isolated from all of the hustle and bustle of the Gold Coast by being surrounded by a large area of sugar cane farms. It is more like a small country town in its feel, than the brash bling of somewhere like Surfers Paradise, less than 30 km to the South.
When the Pacific Highway was completely rebuilt as an eight lane highway in the late nineties the opportunities to grow the tipper and dog side of the business really kicked into gear. Later, the decision to go into the business of landscapes supplies, utilising the fleet, has also turned out to be a timely idea as construction and development boomed in SE Queensland.
Mick started IWS Haulage in 1995. While small, this family‐owned and operated business does well in the supply of wholesale sand and landscape products, including regular sub‐contracting work for Holcim. His fleet comprises 10 PBS truck and quad dog tipper combinations.
The operation is based on a site just on the edge of Jacobs Well in an area which was a bit of a backwater when they first set up. However, its location in countryside in easy commuting distance to both Brisbane and the Gold Coast means it is an area on the up.
