A FORMER design engineer and project manager has shown there is life after Electrolux by taking over and boosting business at an Orange restaurant and motel.
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Vijay Kumar, also known as Vijay Bohra, resigned from his position as project manager at the Orange manufacturing plant on August 14 after buying the Mid City Motor Lodge and Overlander Indian Restaurant in Lords Place.
“The reason for me was they are going to close down and in the future we need to find some other jobs,” he said.
“After Electrolux, I wanted to open something big so I can sustain myself, I found this quite a suitable business.
“At the end of the day we are doing very good, the restaurant is doing very well and the motel is doing well as well.”
Although he left on his terms, Mr Kumar was paid a redundancy and he said Electrolux had been a good employer and was helping employees if they found an opportunity before they had to leave.
“Life after Electrolux is not all over as you can see,” he said.
“There are opportunities all around them [Electrolux employees] if they want to work for someone - they are full of skills and experience, they will find that opportunity.”
However, he said that could mean looking for work elsewhere.
Mr Kumar started at the factory as a design engineer in January 2012 after working at contract company Trang Imagineering in Orange.
He studied a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in India and a Masters of Advanced Manufacturing and Technology at the University of South Australia in Adelaide.
He also has two other small businesses in Orange, a coin laundry, which he still owns and runs and Asian grocery store, which he sold when he bought the motel.
He said the combined business and management experience set him up to take over the motel and restaurant.
“Electrolux has helped me to enhance my skills from where I was, it’s a really good environment and I really appreciated and admired working there,” Mr Kumar said.
Mr Kumar resigned after having the motel and restaurant for a month to ensure they would be sustainable.
“The business was down in the restaurant [under the previous owner], it wasn’t too bad, but we knew we could do a lot better and it’s doing better now,” he said.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au
