Koppers Wood Products assistant manager Geoff Campbell watches Tim Goninon load up with power poles. Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER
LONGFORD wood products business Koppers will deliver more than 800 power poles to bushfire- affected areas across the state over the next eight days to help restore electricity connections.
The company is one of the few suppliers of the treated poles in the state.
Koppers manager Andrew Exton said that his staff had been called back off Christmas holidays to meet the orders.
"We got called on the Saturday once Aurora crews had been in and assessed the damage," Mr Exton said.
"Two loads went off Saturday, three loads went Sunday, five on Monday, four on Tuesday and three or four Wednesday."
Each truck takes about 27 poles, which will continue to be sent off at 100 poles a day for another eight days.
Mr Exton said that Koppers had been able to supply the poles immediately because it had stockpiled over the past year after Aurora cut its annual pole usage by 33 per cent.
"They have been trying to cut costs for two years so have reduced the number of poles they take per annum to 3000 instead of 4300," Mr Exton said.
He said that sourcing suitable logs would soon become an issue due to the drawn-out Tasmanian forest agreement negotiations.
"We require high- quality timber, which is not easily found - we rely heavily on our contractors working out there to source the wood we need," he said.