By Patrick Avenell
GAF Control managing director Stuart Foley has hit out today at ex-employees spreading rumours and gossip about the state of his company. GAF Control currently distributes the Heller, Tiffany, Sunair and Pye brands.
In an extraordinary interview with Current.com.au, Foley and sales and marketing co-ordinator Fiona Trajkovski flatly denied that the company was in financial trouble and that while these rumours were troubling, the company's 24 employees were retaining good morale.
Current.com.au has heard several of these rumours. They predominantly refer to the ongoing financial viability of GAF Control.
“We’ve been around for 53 years — times are tough now and the whole industry is in turmoil — but I can assure you that my assets would be far in excess of $50 million as opposed to my liabilities, and there’s no shadow of us ever going broke,” Foley said.
The source of these rumours, Foley said, was “three of four” former employees that he recently dismissed due to, he said, poor work performance.
Former employees of GAF Control have contacted Current.com.au to present stories about the company. We cannot name these employees, nor will we go into the specifics of these stories.
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Foley said these rumours were hurting GAF Control, both in terms of its business dealings with customers and the confidence of its employees in the company.
“These rumours reflect terribly and it’s quite a shock to me,” he said. “I wish to hell I could take legal action against people, but the people that are doing this wouldn’t have a dime to rub together.”
Trajkovski, speaking on behalf of employees, supported Foley.
“We’ve got a great young team here at the moment and we’ve got a whole heap of new staff members that have come in over the past 12 months that are young and vibrant and wanting to build the business up,” she said. “The staff is happy to be here, however, when we hear rumours like what is going around, it brings the morale down.”
Foley said several well-known major electrical retailers have either reduced their purchasing from GAF Control or ceased it altogether. He said that Bunnings and Masters remain his two biggest clients.
“We’re out there — we’re a stockist and we’re quite unique — we punt on getting stock in on a seasonal basis,” he said.
“I’ve been doing this all my life and I’m quite old now, but at the same time, I’m still anxious to make certain that this business continues because it’s my life.”