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COMPANY FOCUS
QUEENSLAND
Marsh Alliance – Springing into action The modern world could not function without a lot of things we routinely take for granted, and this is certainly true of springs. Queensland-based Marsh Alliance is Australia’s leading manufacturer of this underappreciated, yet vital, component of our everyday lives.
Marsh Alliance operates from a 7,000sqm site at Carole Park, south-west of Brisbane, and employs just over 100 dedicated personnel.
Springs are everywhere but invisible, at least if you’re not looking. And nobody looks for springs.
in Marsh Pressed Parts, Marsh Wire Forms and Marsh Specialty Coatings.”
But your house, for example, is full of them.
Marsh Wire Forms covers simple-to-complex wire clips and shapes manufactured in low- to high-volume runs to suit customers’ needs.
“In construction there’s a number of products that we manufacture, and garage door springs are one of our larger production lines,” explains Chris Watt, Sales & Marketing Manager at Marsh Alliance, of some of their uses by the company’s construction customer base. “Most garage doors and industrial roller shutters would have a spring appropriate to the size of the door to allow for balancing and easy lifting of the door. “We also promote a number of products in the HVAC industry, from both our springs and pressed componentry divisions, for various subassemblies that installers would utilise within the larger construct of HVAC. Additionally suspension ceiling systems are a consistent part of our business, producing componentry that goes into suspended ceiling board systems.” Watt’s company was known as Marsh Springs and Metal Products until earlier this year. It remains the country’s biggest spring maker, and employs just over 100 dedicated personnel. The company’s history goes back to 1953 when it was founded by Thomas Marsh. Today it is still a family business, owned by Thomas’ son Greg Marsh, who has successfully run the business since 1979. As of June 2021 the business was officially rebranded as Marsh Alliance, organising a company grown through a series of recent acquisitions into four unique business units, each reflecting a set of complementary strengths built up over the years as the business grew. All four units operate out of a 7,000sqm site at Carole Park, south-west of Brisbane, which the company has operated out of since 2007. To allow customers an easy way to identify Marsh Alliance’s manufacturing capabilities and to easily communicate its business proposition, the company has been organised according to its four main production divisions. “Marsh Springs, as the staple of the business still holds first place in our group,” Watt explains. “However, it is backed up with capacities
AMT OCT/NOV 2021
Marsh Pressed Parts can make everything from small spring clips to pressed components over 2m long, and typically operates highervolume production. The press division offers presses suitable for a variety of customer requirements, with a press capacity of up to 110 tonnes. It is supported by a fully-equipped, inhouse tool room to keep it all running. Finally, Marsh Coatings is a registered applicator of products made by anti-corrosion specialist Magni, with Australia’s biggest dipand-spin coating plant. The company coats with Magni 565 “on a daily basis”. This is a high-corrosive-resistent two-coat system, consisting of an organic aluminium-rich top coat of five microns, on an inorganic zinc-rich base coat of eight microns. Magni paint is applied utilising a dip-and-spin technology applying controlled layers of coating. Magni 565 routinely achieves neutral salt spray resistance of 1,000 hours and is often specified in the automotive industry, with corrosion protection exceeding all automotive standards and requirements and protecting against hydrogen embrittlement. Automotive is one of the markets Marsh Alliance serves with technology, along with the construction and agricultural segments. “It became a focus of ours to differentiate, firstly, these services within our business, so we can actively promote each section to the companies that are looking for that type of contract manufacturing,” says Watt. “And we were able to approach many of our existing customers with the offer of taking on some of their production, and even part of the retooling of their production, as we’re able to offer in-house tool design, manufacture and then manufacturing of the componentry. “By displaying the four capability businesses that we have is to better position ourselves in the marketplace for companies looking for Australian contract manufacturers.”
