Project snapshot
Alignment with RDA strategy
- Economic development
Alignment with RDA strategy
- Economic development
Grant Recipient Case Study – 2024 Funding Round
Kauppila Pty Ltd is an agile modular building business based on Kangaroo Island. The company designs and constructs prefabricated studios, tourism units and commercial buildings from its facility in Kingscote, delivering across remote and regional sites.
With no resident crane hire services available on the island, the business identified a need to become self-sufficient in loading and transporting its buildings, without sacrificing safety or productivity.
Reducing risk and increasing control
To address the challenges faced by lack of local crane hire, Kauppila used funding from the Hills & Coast Business Grant to purchase four A4C mobile column hoists; equipment typically used to lift trucks or buses. With minor adjustments, the hoists were adapted to suit modular buildings, offering a flexible and highly effective solution.
The first deployment of the hoists reduced a previously multi-person, multi-machine job down to a two-person task. Four modules were successfully loaded within eight hours, with no issues and no need for heavy vehicles or specialist licences.
How the grant funding was used
With support from the grant, Kauppila invested in four mobile column hoists, covering their purchase, transport, and commissioning. These specialised hoists enable safer, quicker lifting and handling of modular buildings, replacing previous methods that relied on more people and heavy machinery.
The impact of this upgrade was immediate:
- Reduced manpower: a task that required 4–5 people now needs just 2, freeing up staff members for other tasks
- Faster load times: from a full day down to approximately 5 hours, speeding project turnaround
- Improved safety: lower risk, more control, less reliance on external heavy equipment
- Greater flexibility: any staff member can operate the hoists with appropriate training
Kauppila now has the ability to load, transport and unload modular buildings entirely in-house, dramatically increasing efficiency and future deployment capability.
What has happened since receiving the grant
Following the success of the first lift, Kauppila has five more tourism accommodation modules currently under construction. With the hoists now fully integrated into their workflow, the business can confidently plan rapid deployment across multiple sites using only standard trucks and trailers.
The investment has also enabled greater design freedom, reduced costs for clients, and increased internal capacity – benefits that are especially significant in a remote island setting.
Feedback on the Hills & Coast grant process
“This flexible, matched funding program proved to be invaluable for Kauppila as it simply made the investment decision for Kauppila viable.
Sharon & Luke Kauppila, Kauppila Pty Ltd
The estimated like-for-like productivity gains have been achieved, reducing both equipment commitment time and manhours, as well as removing the dependency on essential man skills / experience etc. associated with moving buildings.
In a small team like this, it has a hugely positive impact on productivity, capacity and capability of the business to deliver client benefits in reduced cost and more creative design opportunities.”
