GREG WHITEHEAD
Director, AORA
Co-Founder, Candy Soil
Greg graduated from QIT (now QUT) with a Bachelor of Business Accountancy and worked as a corporate accountant for the New Hope Coal business at the Jeebropilly Open Cut mine in the West Moreton Coal fields from 1982 to 1990 before starting Queensland Plant Hire in 1990. Queensland Plant Hire specialised in the hire of heavy earthmoving equipment to the civil construction industry. In 1994, with a colleague he started Candy Soil with one (1) employee, a front end loader, and a screening plant. The Candy Soil business specialises in manufacturing landscape soils servicing the retail landscape and landscape contract market of South East Queensland.
Candy Soil has transitioned from its early beginnings of composting sawdust and animal manures to becoming a large scale composting and soil manufacturing business utilising organic waste streams to produce blended soils, composts and mulches to the landscaping, horticultural and agricultural sectors. The business now employs 25 people and beneficially reuses in excess of 125,000 tonnes of organic and in-organic materials per year.
In 2019 the business created Carbon Plus Compost to better cater for the sale and marketing of high grade compost and mulches to the agricultural and horticultural sector.
Greg is the Queensland Director sitting on the National Board of the Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) since being elected to the position in 2018.