Emily Chapman Laing
A nationwide timber shortage didn’t stop one suburban family, who decided their solution to the shortage would be to just make the timber themselves.
The family bucked the odds of opening a new business during the pandemic and now operate a successful timber packaging company and mill.
Crate n Pack Solutions, located in Dandenong began making pallets, crates and cases during Melbourne’s first lockdown.
“Everyone said we were crazy,” said Sales and Marketing Manager Catherine Wetere.
The team started with Catherine, her father Clarence Wetere (CEO), her sister Kelly and her brothers Jarred, Chris and Cori.
“My dad was ready to retire and put his retirement fund into the business with the goal of stopping generational poverty,” Catherine said.
Not long after the business began, Australia was hit with a timber shortage, followed by a pallet shortage, which then caused rising prices from the timber mills.
“With nowhere to get timber, we went into panic mode.”
Catherine recalled the changing nature of the timber and pallet industry, with “many large companies” not making it through the first year of the timber shortage.
Narre Warren Pallets, who had been operating for “around 30 years” was “forced to close due to the timber shortage”.
“It also affected builders nationwide,” Catherine said.
“As a business, like many other businesses, we had to diversify.”
The family came up with an out of the box solution.
They would simply open their own timber mill.
Sitting on 33 acres in Clyde, the mill was a new journey for the family and the business, and it required the team to learn some new skills.
“We purchased 1000 tonne of logs and we milled the logs into timber for use in our pallet production.
“We purchased a 14 tonne front end loader to unload 46 tonne of logs per trip.
“I had never sat in a wheeled loader, but I got my licence to operate it at COVE Training in Dandenong.”
The mill became a saviour for other businesses whom Crate n Pack was able to support, including Visy Dandenong.
“We are so proud to have helped many big name businesses during the pandemic,” Catherine said.
“We are just a small family who never had a business.
“We came into the business world at the perfect time and our business has rapidly grown over the last three years.”
