Local businessman Geoff Dunne has shown his confidence in the local economy by making the long term commitment of taking on a new apprentice.
Geoff, who owns the Cobar Ultra Finish workshop, has signed up a new apprentice panel beater, 22 year old Nathan McAndrew for the next four years.
Nathan recently moved to Cobar from Bathurst with his girlfriend who has taken on a teaching job.
Already a qualified spray painter, Nathan was keen to also learn panel beating.
“Nathan’s motivated and wants to get his dual trade. He also hopes to open his own business in town one day.” Geoff said.
Geoff has previously trained two apprentices and said he is happy to teach Nathan the panel beating trade and also “the business side of things”.
And he’s not in the least bit worried that one day Nathan might set up as his opposition.
When Geoff first opened his business in 1998, he said there were two other smash repair businesses operating in Cobar and all three workshops had enough work.
The other two businesses have since closed and for the past few years, Geoff hasn’t been offering his customers any panel beating services as he was kept busy doing mainly mine work.
During that time, Cobar residents needing smash repair work were forced to go to Dubbo.
After Nathan approached him looking for work, Geoff said he decided to once again offer his customers smash repair work.
“We can’t take on everything, but we can offer small to medium work, things like bonnet repairs or front end roo damage,” Geoff said.
They will also be offering insurance repairs which will save locals having to send their vehicles 300km away to Dubbo for repairs.
Nathan told The Cobar Weekly he’s received a very warm introduction to Cobar—the temperature has been hovering in the mid 40s each day since he started work.
He’s also been made very welcome at the Cobar Roosters rugby league pre training sessions at the pool.
