Ann: Market Update, page-9

Rightly or wrongly, I have always regarded MND to be more on the skills-plus side of grunt work, and hence its better margins relative to firms more aligned with earthmoving and other intellectually less demanding service provisions. In this context, the irrigation work in NZ seemed a tad on the grunt side for MND, so if it had to let somethings go, that would perhaps have been one of them, IMO, and Covid-19 is a handy excuse to do so.

I knew a man who, with others, owned a restaurant in a scenic hill-top position, and he was delighted when it burnt down in a bushfire. Insurance covered the loss of the building and loss of profits, but by letting all the staff go, and retaining some in various ways, he was able to rid himself of staff he did not wish to employ, and bring the good-value employees back when the restaurant was rebuilt.

Firms like to have excuses to do things that they would like to do anyway. For TGA, closing all the Radio Rentals outlets was perhaps made easier by Covid-19, but they had to go anyhow as the business shifted online. My nephew as a grunt business in WA, and with the Government splashing money around currently, two of his 20-person team actually asked to be fired to get on the public tit.