FGM to open new factory

Fibreglass Moulding Coffs Harbour (FGM) has announced plans to build a new factory specifically designed for the manufacture of fibreglass airport safety markers, after outgrowing their current facility.

The factory will be situated at Woolgoolga, just north of Coffs Harbour, and FGM plans for it to be operational before the end of the year.

FGM produces a number of other products including windsocks and airport furniture, but Managing Director Wyn Holmes said the new factory will allow the company to streamline its airport safety marker production.

Since being commissioned by the Department of Civil Aviation over 30 years ago to replace the asbestos cone markers previously used at airports across the country, FGM has grown into Australia’s largest
developer of airport safety markers.

“We concentrate on all the airports; we would’ve serviced every airport in Australia at some time or another,” Holmes says.

“We’ve developed a lot of things over the years and improved our markers. Originally the markers were all asbestos, then they had a problem where an aeroplane propeller hit some asbestos and it flew through the cockpit of the plane and that’s how we got approached if we could make fibreglass markers.”

Given its durability, fibreglass is an apt material for airport markers, and while there are other types of markers on the market they don’t boast the critical frangibility of fibreglass.

“The main reason for an airport marker is it’s got to be frangile, so if an aeroplane hits it it’s got to fold up without damaging it,” Holmes explains.

“A lot of companies are trying to bring in markers like the witches hats on the road – rubber markers. A lot of the airports are using them, but they’re not frangible and they’re going to have a horrible accident.

And people don’t think about it – for the sake of a few thousand dollars they can equip the whole runway with runway markers and they won’t have any hassle at all.

“The safety issue is paramount, and that’s what we’re looking for all the time.”

Having just secured a substantial order from Papua New Guinea, FGM aims to further focus on building its export business once the new factory opens.