In mid 2012 a manufacturing plant, employing approximately 180 people at SW Sydney, burnt to the ground. While no-one
was injured the plant was completely destroyed and production for the multinational company in Australia stopped. While the company has a production plant in Thailand that could supply some product, this clearly created a crisis for the company in Australia.
Wilkinson Group was called in to the executive meeting immediately after the fire, and asked to advise on likely media and government interest in the catastrophe as well as assist with internal communications (because of prior experience with fires in Victoria we were able to advise on the likely trauma facing people).
Our work involved assisting with:
- Strategic Adice to the CEO and Head of Marketing
- Writing the CEO’s first speech to staff
- Press releases for media
- Media liaison (local and national)
- Liaison on strategy with lawyers
- Development of the social media platform
- Setting up working party with local, state and federal members to source government support
- Ongoing community relations
- Ongoing staff relations
- Ongoing media relations as the company decided to relocate the new plant to another part of Sydney
- Strategy advice on support for customer facing sales team
- Strategy advice on re-branding
- Strategy advice on downsizing the company.
