Power issues hinder opening of new Nambour bakery

David Mares has invested $800,000 in the new, state-of-the-art Nambour bakery

by Cameron Outridge

The owner of Walter’s Artisan Bread, just wants to open his new bakery on Currie Street, Nambour, but finds himself in limbo due to issues with Energex.

David Mares said he was initially told a power supply upgrade to run his ovens and equipment would be feasible. “I checked with Energex before signing the lease,” he said. “They said an upgrade would be no issue,” Mares explained.

Five months later, however, he was told the necessary infrastructure wasn’t available, and he may need to build a new substation, a costly and impractical solution.

“Here we are five months after my initial call and they have asked for six and a half thousand dollars for them to now start to take a look at it. And then they came back four days later and said, ‘No, we can’t upgrade’.”

Mr Mares said he faces pressure to vacate his current location at the Big Pineapple due to the ongoing redevelopment work there. “I’m three-quarters finished with the new facility, but I might end up with nowhere to go,” he said.

Mr Mares has invested $800,000 in the new state-of-the-art Nambour facility and planned to employ a team of twelve people, with cafe staff of 15 and continue supplying local supermarkets and cafes with his organic artisan bread.

“I’ve got all my staff ready to go, but I can’t do anything at the moment,” he said.

Walter’s Artisan Bread is known for its high-quality products, which attract customers from across the Sunshine Coast and even from Brisbane.

“People come up from Brisbane to buy it,” Mares said. Despite presenting all necessary documentation and engaging electrical engineers to liaise with Energex, Mares was frustrated by the process. 

“They’ve just come back with, ‘Look, there’s no facilities to upgrade. The green box out in front of your location is too small, you’d have to build another substation.’ And then the conditions of a substation is you’ve got to have a five metre clear radius around the substation. So whose land am I going to build that on and at what cost?”

Mr Mares chose Nambour over other options, including Kunda Park, partly because he wanted to help attract people to the main street. “I felt that I could inject something into Nambour with my business. I want to bring people to town.”

As negotiations with Energex continue, Mr Mares may have to employ temporary measures such as using a $400-a-day generator. “It has sort of left me flat-footed now. I want to finish this development off and get in there and start because all staff are ready to go, but I can’t do anything at the moment. I don’t quite understand what it all means. But, you know, we are in a big town in the 21st century, surely to goodness they can figure this stuff out.”

Energex responds: 

Energex was asked to respond and provided the following statement: While Energex cannot discuss individual customers’ matters in depth for privacy reasons, it is a customer’s responsibility to provide timely and correct information to enable technical staff to assess what network upgrades will be required to manage significant loads. 

In this case, a substantial upgrade to the local and somewhat complex underground network will be required.

After a number of Energex requests for information, customer’s technical requirements were received on 28 May and we are now working with them to assess their options.