ABOUT M & P SERVICES QLD
At M&P Services, we pride ourselves on being a locally owned business, who have been operating across the region since 1986. We are a stable and established business with a growing market share in the manufacture of transportable buildings. We are the largest manufacturer of portable buildings in the Central and North Queensland regions and an industry leading specialist in the design & manufacture of Mobile Crib rooms, servicing Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Overseas markets.
Celebrating 35 years
The best Aussie success stories start with two mates, a few beers and a bit of hard work.
Most people in Mackay would have driven past M&P Service’s massive shed in Paget. As you drive down Farrellys Road it’s hard to miss.
What you might not know is the evolution that took a small mechanical and panel beating workshop to being one of the region’s leading mining services provider.
It’s quite a journey, from mechanical & panel beating repairs, to transport and logistics to manufacturing transportable buildings and mobile crib rooms.
And like every good yarn worth its salt, there’s a heartwarming beginning, with one of the founders, Max Lamb (Snr) saying he didn’t have ‘two bob to rub together’ when he and a mate went into business.
Cast your mind back to 1986, when Mackay was a sugar town. Max Lamb and Peter Brayshaw (dec) joined forces as a panel beater and a mechanic to create M&P Autos. The M&P stood for Mechanical and Panel Beating, but it was a fitting match also for Max and Peter. Their first shed was located on Archibald Street, and with around $200 in the bank, the men were determined to fill a gap in the market as a comprehensive service provider.
Max bought a tilt tray to pick up smashed cars, and saw an opportunity to put their truck to further use and started transporting hire equipment around Mackay for other businesses.
“It grew pretty quickly actually,” Max Snr said, and this is what led M&P into transport.
Within a year the business expanded to Satellite Cres, where they remained for 14 years. M&P Towing was established in 1988 and then with the mining boom of the early 90’s, they became the preferred transporter for some of Mackay’s most prominent businesses servicing the mining industry.
With an ability to adapt and diverse to the market requirements, the businesses landscape is constantly changing.
Max’s son, Max Lamb (Jr) joined the business in 1990 as a truck mechanic under his Dads partner, Peter Brayshaw and became a Director in 1997.
One of the company’s major revenue streams was in transporting portable buildings, so it was a risk when they decided to enter the transportable building market themselves.
“That came about in the early 2000’s doing a lot of site construction work,” Max Jnr said.
“Dad’s forte is looking at how people do things and working out ways to do it better, so we started installing mining camps around the region, 200-person accommodation facilities which were big projects in short timeframes. That resulted in building up a large construction crew travelling around installing portable buildings through Central Queensland.
“2005 we started manufacturing our own transportable buildings. Having been involved with transporting and installing them for so long we felt we could bring a better product to the market. Subsequently we lost a big revenue stream as we could no longer transport and install for what became our competitors, so that was a huge risk and change of direction for the business,” Max Jnr said.
“We took the leap of faith, and we’re still here.”
The business has been better for it. M&P are now one of the largest manufacturer of portable buildings in Central and North Queensland. Their buildings service the needs of a wide array of industry, from mining and agriculture to domestic events & sporting organisations. “We can cater for any market and any requirement”
Transportable buildings offer a flexible alternative solution to fixed permanent construction.
M&P became a one-stop solution for mining companies where they would only have to raise one purchase order for the design, the supply, the transport and installation.
Max Snr summed up M&P’s evolution by saying, “There’s no end to our vision.”
Our Motto is ‘Get it Right on Site’
