Doing business like a BOS
By Amy Sims
Are you a member of the Albany Chamber of Commerce & Industry Inc?
Why? you may ask. The Albany Chamber of Commerce (ACCI) has been the voice of businesses in Albany and the Great Southern since 1892. Here at Lincolns we have been a member of the Chamber for a number of years.
Being a member of the ACCI you have access to a number of benefits including business advice/assistance, monthly networking events (Business After Hours), business forums such as the Women's Leadership Forum and the annual business awards to name a few. Lincolns have always been actively involved with the ACCI either by way of regular attendance at the Business After Hours, being part of the board of executives and sponsoring or being the guest speaker at events.
Next month the ACCI Great Southern Business Awards will be held on 14 September at the Albany Entertainment Centre. These awards put the spotlight on local businesses that are excelling in their industry. Winning the awards not only brings recognition but there can be many other benefits that flow on to your business. We were very lucky to catch up with one of the previous winners, Phil Shilcock, from Best Office Systems (BOS) who tells us more in this month’s edition of our “coffee with”.
A coffee with ...
By Gavin Hard
Brendan Taylor and Gavin Hard recently caught up with Phil Shilcock from Best Office Systems (BOS). BOS are suppliers and service agents of office machines and technological needs in the Great Southern with offices in Albany and Narrogin.
Owners, Phil & Michelle together with their team pride themselves in providing the latest technology backed up by the fastest and most efficient after sales service possible. BOS have won numerous national sales awards with Ricoh and Konica Minolta but it is the local ACCI business awards won in 2001 and 2004 they are most proud of.
Read about Phil's ACCI award win and his experience as a business owner here.
Commodities
An interesting perspective on grain prices
By Brendan Taylor
These are very interesting times for grain farmers at the moment. It wasn’t a great start to the year but things have improved significantly for most of the state, except the south coast from Albany to Esperance.
If it turns out to be an average or better year, then the current grain prices are going to have a massive impact on profitability.
Wheat was selling last week for $360 per tonne, up from $264 in January. Barley is at $343, up from $254 and Canola is $603, up from $514.
These might not seem to be alarming increases, but as the breakeven point for farmers growing wheat, depending on your yield and inputs, can sit around $230 per tonne then this price has the potential to increase their profit by nearly 4 times.
While we are not qualified to give advice to farmers about fixing prices, hedging and grain financial products, we are able to provide some facts. We suggest you have the discussion with your grain market consultant and consider the following thoughts.
“Grain prices have been very volatile for many years. There have been a few ups and many downs. Would you usually be happy with the current grain prices? If so, is it wise to sell some of your expected production at a price that you would usually be happy with, rather than try to pick the top of the market?”
We have seen many times where farmers have waited until prices topped out, and have found it hard to fix as they come down, only to miss any decent price completely.
In saying all of that, prices could continue to rise way beyond this. Who knows!
