Business for a lot of owners has not been good in 2024. The cost of living has bitten hard with interest rates high, rents high, the cost of groceries, petrol and insurance all increasing, so much so that people's discretionary spending is the only aspect that has decreased.

Some business owners are weathering the storm, while others are taking the opportunity to reinvent their businesses to survive. "Adapt or die" is taken from the HG Wells quote in 1945, which highlights that change is inevitable.

AJ Magnay has run his factory seconds and recycled building materials yard for 41 years in North Lismore. Life has changed a great deal in that time, think of technology and the introduction of Bunnings to Lismore, let alone COVID and floods.

The big flood in 2022, has been a tipping point for AJ and not in a good way.

Normally, the thought of flooded homes needing repair is music to a recycled building material yard ear, but changes in what materials you could use didn't help the business.

"We would normally be the go-to place to come and do small repairs on your house," AJ explained, "Things like louvres, flooring, doors and general repairs that might have been flood-affected. Carpets and vinyls as well."

"Most of the time, houses are generally elevated high enough, so it's only underneath that would get impacted, whereas this time, the whole home has been impacted. Now, a lot of those have been getting sorted from insurance companies, and insurance companies won't let them use secondhand stuff, which is what we mainly do. It has to be new for them to guarantee it."

"And builders, if the builders are in there doing stuff, the builders won't use secondhand stuff, either in most cases. It doesn't meet Australian standards, even though, in most cases, the timber and all the stuff are a better quality than half the stuff they're putting back in there."

To reinforce that point, Ann (AJ's partner) gave the example of a nice old house on Tweed Street whose interior was stripped and replaced with gyprock and MDF architraves. He did have hardwood lining and architraves.

"They're trying to do it as cost-effective as possible. And the only way to do it as cost-effective as possible is to use, let's call it, lower-quality materials."

"So, that makes it very, very, very difficult and a lot of the customers that we would normally deal with and have been here for 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, those people have been displaced, and a lot of them aren't coming back."

The changes are not specific to AJ Magnay's, the industry is hurting.

"As an industry, yes, it's suffering. It is suffering badly, and in this day and age, when they talk about reuse, recycle and upcycle, we are recycling less now than I was 40 years ago when I started."

"Because of the changes in legislation, you can't use secondhand stuff in council-approved new builds or renovations; it's all got to be new. Unless you get an Australian standard for it, and that is not cost-effective. We're talking about 100-year-old, old-growth rainforest timbers that don't move. If it's straight now, it's going to be straight for a long time.

"When I first started 40 years ago, between Nerrang and Coffs Harbour, I reckon there were about a dozen recycle yards doing building materials. Now, I think there might be three or four left."

"The Terania Street bridge has also had a huge impact on our business over the last seven months. People find it hard to get here, especially if they're new to town or people just can't be bothered.

These changes mean a business like AJ Magnay's needs to change or evolve to survive.

"I suppose it's like a lot of other businesses you have to evolve or change to the market. The trouble is the market is changing so quickly. I've never seen the changes, as we've seen the last five years with COVID and the floods, since the 17 flood, so that's nearly seven years."

"Technology. We thought we'd have 10 years to change with technology over the COVID period, well that changed within months. If you're not on social media, or if you're not on the internet, or you're not doing something in that digital space, you're basically buggered. A lot more people are purchasing stuff online, which makes it difficult as well because we don't do that much online. We do a little bit online, but not much that much. And some of our stuff, I think, is a little bit hard to put online. It may be right for the local area, but if you've got a 100-year-old door that is a little bit unique to send to Melbourne or somewhere, it's worth more than the door."

So, how is AJ Magnay's going to adapt to a changing business climate?

"We're going to downsize and rationalise back to stuff that we know we can sell. $1 AJ is not $1 AJ anymore. We have to come to the marketplace and try and be competitive, which makes it very difficult."

"We'll do the buckets, drums, IBCs (1000 litre water containers), good doors and windows. We'll probably do carpet tiles, reproduction brass handles and knobs, tin panels, garage shelving and pallet racking."

"We're going to clean up all the other stuff we have here that we can sell cheap. Tiles. I don't want to do tiles anymore. So, we might do tiles at $10 a metre instead of $20 or $30 a metre, which is still cheap. If someone is willing to take the lot, then I might do a bit better deal. Underneath the stairs here, we've got lots of odd tiles that people come in and use for repairs and things like that.

"Shop fittings will be sold cheaply. We're getting out of that too. I encourage everyone to come in take a look around and make us an offer. We definitely have to create more room so we can stock more buckets and drums that will be coming in larger quantities."

You will find AJ Magnay at 29 Macaulay Street, North Lismore. To get there, you will need to travel along Wilson Street, South Lismore, and turn right on Terania Street, then left on to Macaulay Street. They are open between 8:30am and 5pm Monday to Friday.