THE development of Gason's $6 million facility is taking shape after construction teams raised the roof on the new laser facility.
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MKM Constructions have spent weeks on the initial construction of the facility and are in the process of erecting the framework.
On Friday four cranes were brought in from Ballarat to lift the completed roof, then assemble the main frame of the almost 10 metre high building.
The total structure is just on 2500 square metres.
"It's 62 metres by 42 metres," Gason chief financial officer Leon Nash said.
"Height wise it's just under 10 metres tall. Under the roof trusses is just on nine metres.
"The storage system for our raw material input will come to within 200 millimetres of the roof."
The full expansion is expected to be complete in mid-February of 2020 and will include the construction of the building to house a new laser cutting machine, as well as a shelf storage system with about 530 shelves capable of holding three tonnes of material each.
"We'll have about $4 million worth of new equipment coming into the new facility," Mr Nash said.
The laser cutting machine will help Gason increase its production capacity, which will allow them to go out and bring more products into the facility.
Mr Nash said it was part of a long term plan to strengthen the company's position as an industry leader.
"It's a very exciting day," he said.
"It's been five years in the making but we finally got there and it's an exciting time for the business as we look to the future of what we can do in Ararat.
"This will shore up the future for a long period of time and provides us with the opportunity to become even better in the market that we're in, which is agricultural equipment, heaters and industrial services.
"So all of those will benefit from the facility being completed.
The expansion will also lead to more jobs opening up.
Gason is hoping to provide 15 more employment opportunities to locals, securing more manufacturing jobs for the region.
"We're doing our best to do internal and external training to entice more qualified people into our facility," general manager Wayne Gason said.
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