While all eyes are on our athletes in Barcelona, a small Western Australian company, which employs many people with disabilities, has won the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal in business.
Disability Services Minister Eric Ripper said today that F.C.B. Woodcraft of Nedlands had tendered against world-wide competition to win the right to produce the high-quality presentation boxes, in which special coins to commemorate the centenary Olympic Games in 1996 would be sold across the world.
Mr Ripper said the boxes would be made from jarrah - which was unique to WA - and would be used for the International Olympic Committee's unique Numismatic Coin program.
The WA-made boxes would be shipped to the five national mints participating in the international program; Canada, Australia, France, Austria and Greece.
Under the program, five series of Olympic commemorative coins would be produced and the contract would be worth about $500,000 in the first year alone.
F.C.B. Woodcraft would produce the presentation boxes for the five, 10 and 15 coin sets at their Nedlands workshops.
The presentation boxes and coin sets were expected to be popular with coin collectors across the world and in Europe alone there were about 125 million of them.
The 70-year-old WA company, which employs 100 people with disabilities (15 in the production of the Olympic boxes), was wholly-owned by the Tuberculosis and Chest Association of Western Australia. The Association was dedicated to the rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
"This significant contract demonstrates that the work done by people with disabilities can be of world standard, and the company has benefited from its caring and responsible employment policy," the Minister said.
"In business terms, this performance ranks with winning a medal in Barcelona and is of great credit to the company and the State. The work of WA people with disabilities will be on show across the globe and will earn Australia much-needed export dollars."
In association with Gold Corp. Australia and the Perth Mint, F.C.B. Woodcraft already produced the timber cases for the Australian Nugget and Koala series in the precious metal coin program.
"The skill of the people with disabilities employed here has helped the company become one of the leading manufacturers of quality wooden presentation cases in Australia," the Minister said.
