In the next of series profiling the faces in business in our wonderful shire, we meet Peter Giles from engineering and construction company Giles Group.
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Tell us a bit about yourself and Giles Group
My name is Peter Giles, and I'm a proud Parkes local as well as the Managing Director of our business, Giles Group Australia that my wife and I founded.
Giles Group Australia is an engineering, construction and maintenance company servicing, but not limited to, the industrial processing, mining and agricultural sectors
What pushed you into founding the company?
Prior to establishing Giles Group, I had been in business with a good friend.
In 2017 that company had around 10 team members and was operating well, however my business partner and I discovered we had different ideas about our business, its growth and what direction we wanted to take it.
Unfortunately a business cannot be sustained successfully in circumstances like this which, in turn, led us to closing down the business.
After a little soul searching about myself as a business owner and about what my business goals were, Giles Contracting was founded, and some four years later is now a registered private company known as Giles Group Australia.
I made the decision to start this company in the effort to do better and to be better.
I truly believe that the era of just turning up to work to get paid is behind us and that the workplace of 2022, and beyond, is one that treats each employee as an individual person and not just a number or a dollar-making machine.
As Managing Director and as an employer, I want to provide challenges for all my team members to encourage both personal growth and growth in their career choices and goals.
I want each of them to be confident, skilled employees, which in turn I hope will be able to provide them with more opportunities for a better life balance for themselves and for their families.
That's exactly what I want for myself and it's exactly what I want for all our employees.
Tell us about the business' biggest achievement
It's hard to define any one achievement to be the biggest. Personally of course my family will always take top spot for that title, however from a business point of view, with 100 per cent total honesty, I would say my team is our biggest achievement.
It's because without my team bringing their individual skills to work each day, as well as their commitment to growing my business with me, I wouldn't have a business.
What are the main services you offer?
Our main business focus is on engineering, construction and maintenance.
We work across multiple industry sectors and we are growing that space daily.
Giles Group have a strong focus on safety across all areas of our work, and ultimately I want to make sure each of my team members get home to their families safely at the end of each day.
We encourage anyone with an interest in our line of business, or with a relevant skill-set that they want to be able to utilize to their full potential, as well as grow their work experiences, to jump on our website and have a look at what we have to offer as a prospective employer.
There are a lot of exciting projects coming up in Parkes, like the bypass and SAP - what do you think this will bring for the industry?
It is my opinion that these projects are going to be a true game-changer for the Parkes community at large.
As investors, watching the council and government investing in and completing these types of projects, it will be a snowball affect and will bring a continual supply of jobs and projects to the region.
A perfect example of this was the recent Animal Food Processing plant.
I believe that the jobs and revenue that was distributed into the local community during this project was only a taste of what is to come for Parkes.
You've got a lot of strong partnerships with other businesses - how important is that to you, and what's the key to having good relationships within the industry?
I would be lying if I said we haven't had our fair share of contretemps with other businesses in the industry over the years, however one thing I can say is poor relationships are a poor idea...literally.
We now have many strong relationships throughout the industry and we continually strive to grow in this space.
I heard a phrase a few years ago that I like and have since discovered: 'collaboration over competition'.
When you aren't working, what do you do in your spare time?
As well as our business, my wife and I have a beautiful active two-year-old daughter and another bambino is due next year. What does spare time look like?!
Do you have any thoughts on what could be done to support local businesses more?
I would love to see something that brings local business owners together with the next generation workforce and also the unemployed to assist in working out a transition plan into the workforce, and to also arm them with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about where they see their future in the work force.
Who is someone you look up to in the local community?
This is a tough question! There are definitely some business owners in Parkes that I would consider as mentors in a business sense.
I might like their business model, their community contributions, where they have built their business from or what opportunities they provide for their workforce.
I genuinely feel that anyone out there trying to break the mould and do better, be better and live a better life is worthy of looking up to.
You never know who's watching and waiting to be inspired to be better.
Anything else you want to add?
A genuine thanks to the Parkes Champion Post for running this article.
I hope there's someone reading these articles that might take some encouragement from them and decide to take the leap and try that new business idea.
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