C O M P A N Y I N S I G H T
Profit is KING,
TURNOVER is secondary Written by Niki Waldegrave Produced by Jeff Debicki
EPTEC GROUP
EPTEC Group celebrates its 20th birthday this year. CEO Joe Viglione tells Niki Waldegrave how its work was instrumental to the preservation of the Royal Australian Navy fleet and the company’s vision for the next two decades
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reservation and rehabilitation engineering contractor EPTEC Group turns 20 in September – and if you’re not familiar with it, you’ll certainly know some of its biggest projects. From the new build of the ANZAC Frigates to maintenance for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Flinders Street Station, the Burnley & Domain Tunnels, and US air craft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, EPTEC has worked on them all. Its specialist expertise spans services such as corrosion protection, lining and waterproofing, concrete rehabilitation, abrasive blasting, hydro-blasting, painting, building façade refurbishment, fibre reinforced plastics and thermal insulation. EPTEC also has a long history for serving the defence, water and wastewater, energy
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and resources, infrastructure and mining industries. Joe Viglione, CEO, says: “We’ve done work on nearly every surface ship in the RAN. The Anzac Frigate was our biggest project and the founding one. It laid the foundations for the company from March 1998 until May 2006. “It was undertaken at Williamstown in Victoria and we had up to 300 employees involved, some of whom are still with us, like our production manager Bruno Dumont, our project manager Chris Foster, and our supervisor Mark Sanders. They were instrumental in delivering that project.” The next two milestones were Project Protector for the Royal New Zealand Navy from 2006 – 2010, and the upgrade of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne before the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
CONSTRUCTION
Project Protector was run by Gwydion Sherwood, who ran the operation in New Zealand and is still with the company today. “That involved a lot of our areas of skill,” Viglione adds, “like blasting, painting, concrete repair, carbon fibre strengthening, grouting and chemical injection.
It involved almost everything we do in our suite of services.” Most of EPTEC’s supervisors have at least 10 years’ service, and Viglione pays credit to the handful of founding employees, explaining: “They’re the old stalwarts that rocked up and worked out of the back of their
HMAS Perth before launch
“Hang around, contribute to the industry, in small to medium-sized organisations you can really fly if you’re prepared to make the effort”
EPTEC GROUP
utes. We hired, begged, borrowed war in Iraq, being the ship used everything at the start and to launch the first attack.” they’ve helped grow EPTEC from With a civil engineering nothing to what we are today.” background in major infrastructure He claims one of the company’s projects such as Port Kembla proudest achievements was Grain Terminal, Mt. Piper Power working on US aircraft carrier the Station and Sydney Harbour USS Abraham Lincoln, and recalls Tunnel, the then CEO of Transfield how he received the Construction, Claudio Di phone call for the Berardino, introduced project at home Viglione to Piccioli in on Boxing Day. 1992. Piccioli at the “I negotiated time was the General the contract Manager of Transfield over the next Corrosion Protection. 24-48 hours Viglione remembers Number of employees reluctantly accepting whilst travelling at EPTEC Group with my wife the role with Piccioli but and two children to “within two years of being my in-laws,” he laughs. in corrosion protection, I was “I mobilised on site in Perth on running the painting division,” January 5 and between myself he says. “From understanding and operations superintendent nothing, the small organisation Michael Ippoliti, we worked around gave me the opportunity to be the clock to deliver that vessel in valued for my contributions.” 12 days with a crew of 70 guys. When EPTEC was founded “We were 10 nautical miles off in September 1997 by Enrico the coast of Fremantle and did Piccioli, with the support of it at sea. It was involved in the Claudio Di Berardino, together
200-300
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CONSTRUCTION
“In the last three years we’ve increased the business turnover by 50 percent, whilst at the same time maintaining profitability”
Eptec at the completion of the HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) maintenance
EPTEC GROUP
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“We rely very heavily on repeat business, and repeat business is built on relationships” 8
they convinced Viglione and a few other very valuable supervisors to join the new Company. The effervescent Piccioli – Italy’s youngest engineer when he graduated at 21 – focused on the business development and administration while Viglione headed-up the projects. Piccioli was EPTEC’s director and CEO up until his passing in May 2014, at which point his friend of 25 years and business partner, Claudio Di Berardino, became Managing Director, and Viglione was promoted from Chief Operating Officer to CEO. “Two of the people I’ve learned the most from in my life are Enrico and Claudio,” Viglione says. “Enrico was my work mentor for 22 years. He was a fabulous entrepreneur, salesman, and loved to travel. “He looked a bit like King Henry VIII in his younger days with a red beard. He was a brilliant storyteller, highly intelligent, very well-spoken and wrote and dictated prolifically.” Viglione has known Di Berardino
SECTOR
Joe Viglione CEO
Mark Benham CFO
Claudio Di Berardino Managing Director
for more than 40 years after advisor at school and saying to meeting him at the age of about them, ‘I want to be an engineer eight-years-old when his father and project director like Claudio’. worked for him on the “In his young days, he was power stations on smooth as silk but tough the New South as nails. He could be Wales Central fierce in a meeting Coast. but once you walked “For years, I out of the room it aspired to be was all OK. Now, he’s like Claudio,” like the statesman of Annual revenue at adds Viglione. the organisation and EPTEC Group “He was like a god, is well-respected in the and his reputation construction industry.” preceded him. I vividly Viglione insists Di Berardino, remember going to my careers who is retiring later this year
$50
Million
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EPTEC GROUP
Works on the Taiwan High Speed Rail Link
Sino Iron project site
David Inger HSEQ Manager
Lawrence Rob HR-ER-IR Manager
at the grand old age of 18 – a leap year baby – has taken the private business to the next level with his growth strategies. “As a private Company for us, profit is king, turnover is secondary,” claims Viglione. “The current EPTEC team has built upon the successes of the founding members, and in the last three years the business turnover has increased by 50 percent, whilst at the same time maintaining profitability. “My vision for the next 10 years is to continue to aggressively
Chris Zervos
Pre-Contracts Manager
grow the company, albeit at a more sustainable rate than the last couple of years, maintain profitability, and most importantly, ensure the health and safety of our employees not only from a physical side, but also from a psychological space.” He claims the most exciting projects for the next 18 months are in the Australian Naval new-build sector. Currently, the Australian Government boasts one of the largest expenditure forecasts for new-build vessels of any nation. “Projects like the 12 offshore
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EPTEC GROUP
Weekly HSEQ meeting patrol boats, 9 future Frigates and the replacement submarines make it an exciting time,” Viglione adds. “Now we’ve started on the submarines. We’re currently doing refurbishments which in the early 1990s, Superintendent Michael Ippoliti and I were involved in the new build stage painting. “Whenever we win a project, I go from the thrill of the chase to immediately moving into execution and delivery mode, saying, ‘My God! What have I got myself into?’ “Being a company of our size, one needs to be humble in working
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with our clients, because we rely very heavily on repeat business, which is built on relationships. “They’re the things that really help you get up in the morning and give you the passion for something you want to do.”
Dr Enrico Piccioli’s 3rd Anniversary Memorial
463-467 Harris Street, Ultimo Sydney, NSW, Australia 2007 Tel. +61 2 9034 6969 Fax. +61 2 9034 6970 www.eptec.com.au