The closure of a major building and mechanical supply store has forced businesses in a remote WA town to frantically source products from Perth and Darwin while warning customers to expect price rises.

Trades workers say the large Metaland shop in the Kimberley town of Kununurra was a crucial source of materials and parts.

They said while its retail prices were expensive, its proximity provided the means to turn jobs around quickly.

Business owners said they were shocked to find out late last month the store, owned by Australia-wide company Stratco, was closing with a day’s notice.

The ABC has spoken to almost a dozen businesses in the town who said it was an added blow on top of labour shortages and sharp rises in material and freight costs, and further highlighted the remote town’s exposure to supply chain disruptions.

Workshop owners who were already sourcing materials from Perth and Darwin said they would be less affected.

But others were scrambling to stock their stores with products from capital cities while awaiting a new player to fill the void.

Huge downfall

Annette Early, who co-owns a building and maintenance company, said the closure had a huge effect on her business.

“We may need materials to fix roofs, fencing, cladding, all sorts of things,” she said.

“It’s a huge downfall for us.”

She said freighting materials would leave her company and others, especially those in building, exposed to material or part shortages while exacerbating unforeseen mishaps.

“We’re going to have to look at freight … and if we get the deliveries and something’s wrong we’re going to have to send it back and reorder it, get it all back again,” she said.

“So it’s going to affect us but not only us but our clientele.”

Ms Early said she expected to pay an extra $15,000 to $20,000 on freight a month to ensure her business had a wide variety of materials ready to use.

“The price of metal and steel has gone up astronomically over the last couple of years,” she said.

“We’re going to have to pass on the cost, we can’t just keep incurring.

Big hit to cashflow

The closure also took boat, trailer and caravan mechanic Jason Heinze by surprise and forced him into a flurry of big purchases initially amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

“We’ve now gone ahead and procured our own stock which is a massive hit to our cashflow,” he said.

He said repairing caravans and camper trailers was a huge trade during the dry season visitor rush.

“A lot of our travelling, nomad customers are only in town for two or three days, and the reason we accept their job or they accept our quote is because we can do it then or there, same day or next day,” Mr Heinze said.

“If we start going, ‘let’s wait seven days for those parts to rock up’, I think we’re going to lose business.”

He said one silver lining was the situation might force local businesses to find cheaper supply chains.

“With this kick in the guts, it’s kind of forcing us to go out and get our own accounts and get wholesale parts,” he said.

“So we’ll actually procure the parts at a cheaper rate. We just need the cashflow behind us to build our stock levels up.”

The ABC has contacted Stratco for comment.