WWW.BUSINESSREVIEWAUSTRALIA.COM | November 2014
+ 5 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL CLOUD STRATEGY + AUSTRALIA’S 10 MOST VISITED SOCIAL NETWORKS + THE CHALLENGES OF RAISING CAPITAL FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
TOP TRAITS OF YOUNG LEADERS HOW THESE YOUNG AUSTRALIAN CEOS ATTAINED SUCCESS SO YOUNG
EDITOR’S COMMENT
CONTRIBUTORS
How do young leaders do it?
Colin McCabe Colin McCabe is Senior Manager, Services and Training for Red Hat Australia and New Zealand. Leading a team of consultants and solution architects, he delivers advanced technical solutions designed to save clients money and increase performance, with a focus on leadership and building functional teams.
That’s the question we’re looking to answer in our cover story: Winning Traits of Young Leaders. For some, it takes his or her whole life to climb to the top; others are there by 25 or 30. Business Review Australia investigated the country’s leading young minds to figure out what makes them successful at such a young age. Much of the rest of our editorial this month is catered to the small business, an integral part of Australia’s business DNA. “Challenges of Raising Capital For Small Businesses,” breaks down the issues—and the solutions—SMBs encounter when trying to fund their operation. Social media plays a huge part in many SMBs’ success, so we covered both continuous branding, which is made much easier with social media, and Australia’s most visited social media platforms, which can give you and your company an idea of the best place to spend your time interacting with customers. With contributor Colin McCabe, senior manager at Red Hat, providing insight into cloud strategies, this issue can provide advice and guidance for many different areas in your SMB. Enjoy the issue!
Laura Close Editor laura.close@wdmgroup.com 3
CO CN OTNETN ETNST S FEATURES This month we focus on the customer experience with the latest technology
32 Marketing
Continuous Branding
6 Leadership
Winning Traits of Young CEOs
12 Finance
Challenges of Raising Capital For Small Businesses
22 Technology
Five Steps To A Successful Cloud Strategy
40 Top 10
50
130 NAMCOR
Volvo Group A
Most Visited Social Networks
COMPANY PROFILES SUPPLY CHAIN
ENERGY
EXPLORATION
50 Volvo Group Australia
142 Innovative Fluid Systems
176 TAG Oil
148 Sigra Engineering
MANUFACTURING
156 NZ Diving and Salvage
188 Varley Group
62 Liftronic Pty Ltd 74 Symons Group 84 Rail Track Association Australia
MINING 94 Liebherr Australia 118 CITIC Heavy Industries 134 BMD Group
CONSTRUCTION 162 Buildcorp Interiors 168 Cooke & Dowsett Pty Ltd
194 Rhino Tanks
42
FOOD
HEALTH 202 Anywhere Healthcare
66 4
August 2014
Shore Gold
202 The Pancake Parlour
Australia
74
Symons Group
156
188
Varley Group
NZ Diving and Salvage
134
BMD Group
168
Cooke & Dowsett Pty Ltd
202
The Pancake Parlour
5
LEADERSHIP
WINNING TRAITS O YOUNG CEOS WHAT DOES
YOUR GAME AS A YOUNG BUSINESSPERSON
CEOS TO SEE WHAT IT TOOK TO GET THEM TO W R ITTE N BY: LAU RA C LO SE
OF
S IT TAKE TO BE AT THE TOP OF
N? WE PROFILE THREE YOUNG
O THE TOP.
LEADERSHIP YOUNG CEOS ARE becoming more and more common as startups and app developers are gaining ground and respect in the exploding new-business market. Ageism can be a problem for these young leaders, as many of their older colleagues and connections find it difficult to have a millennial in charge. So how do they do it? Australia’s market for young leaders is growing right in stride. We look at a few of the top young leaders—one as young as 23—to examine their paths to success, and see what it takes to get to the top of the food chain so early in their careers. Genevieve George As founder and chief executive of the online recruitment startup OneShift, you would expect Genevieve George to have a few companies and years of experience under her belt. This is the first major venture of the CEO, who is only 23. OneShift specialises in jobs for casual, part-time and shift workers, and launched less than two years ago. George saw a gap in the market— many job search services cater to full-time or freelance job seekers—and 8
November 2014
capitalised on the niche. She also experienced this gap in the market firsthand. While working a six-week job on a boat in France, she attempted to find a better short-term employment opportunity; the search was harder than she anticipated. When she returned to Sydney, George pasted together a online portal via WordPress and started marketing. “It really took off. It reflects the fact that many of today’s workers don’t necessarily want nine to five jobs. They want to be able to travel and explore
WINNING TRAITS OF YOUNG CEOS
Genevieve George, 23-year-old CEO of OneShift, a job search platform.
“The beautiful thing about being 23 is that I don’t have four kids and a mortgage. I can take a risk and put my best foot forward,” said George.
opportunities,” George said to the Sunday Morning Herald. “We’ve got mums looking for flexible work through to teenagers and retirees. Recently we matched a hospital director on long service leave with a startup looking for a short-term business strategist.” Since its launch, the business has garnered over 300,000 jobseekers with a staff of 35 and $5 million in starting investment. Last year the company was valued at $18 million; this year, its revenue has increased by 65 percent. George’s persistence and not being afraid to fail have been two great assets for her and her company. She also cites her lack of business knowledge as a positive trait as well. “It meant I could make decisions on the fly based on gut instinct rather than rely on precedent or hard and fast rules,” she said. “It wasn’t a question of ‘do I have the skill-set?’ but ‘what can I do to make this work?’” “The beautiful thing about being 23 is that I don’t have four kids and a mortgage. I can take a risk and put my best foot forward,” said George, who works more often than not, even on the weekends. 9
LEADERSHIP Michael Bell and Nic Blair You would think the term “overnight success” would have a very literal meaning. But colleagues and university mates Michael Bell and Nic Blair are “overnight successes” on their ninth attempt of starting a business. In between university and their success, both worked long hours, founding businesses and working part-time jobs, ultimately selling their cars to pay back loans to the banks. Like Genevieve George, the two friends noticed a gap in the market—specifically, it was very difficult to find affordable, flexible and personal search engine optimisation in Australia. The two began developing the Search Factory in 2011, combining their knowledge and experiences, both good and bad, from past business endeavours. Search Factory capitalises on
Michael Bell and Nic Blair of Search Fa a key difference in the market of SEO—the company does not offer contracts or packages but instead charges an hourly rate, not a usual way of business in the content marketing world. Clients get flexibility with no need to stay committed should they not like the service. It puts Search Factory in the hot seat, making sure they get it
“Search engine marketing is what we know inside out, so we are committed to sharing and supporting local businesses in their quest to generate strong enquiries through online methods,” Bell shared. 10
November 2014
actory. right for every client, every time. So what makes business number nine different? Bell and Blair have focused their efforts on relationships—both with their employees and clients— innovation, skills and results. The most important focus, however, has been on their expertise. “Search engine marketing is what we know inside out, so we are committed to sharing and supporting local businesses in their quest to generate strong enquiries through online methods,” Bell shared with the Brisbane Times. The two friends also shared that work ethic is a huge contributor to their success.
“Firstly, you can do the minimum and work day by day just to get by. Or secondly, you can go above and beyond and give 150 percent, bend over backwards to achieve the best.” Between their first eight failed business endeavours, both men took the time out to network with people in their industry. The communication skills learned, as well as the connections they made during these opportunities, set the foundation for Search Factory. Both believe that this skill is the most important in marketing, claiming “it is all about who you know.”
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FINANCE
How To Overcome The Challenges Of Raising Capital
For small businesses and startups, raising the necessary cap outside sources can seem like a nearly impossible task. We i these challenges and provide strategies to help get your com fundraising efforts on track. W R I T T E N B Y: L A U R A C LO S E
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f
pital from investigate mpany’s
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FINANCE VERY FEW SMALL businesses can make it on self funding alone. Not everyone has millions of dollars saved up to start their company off with full coffers. Luckily with startups popping up left and right, there is a lot of attention on who raised how much money how quickly; this can give you and your business an idea of what it can accomplish. However, there’s a lot to learn before running a successful fundraising campaign, and there are a lot of ways to mess it up. The first mistake: thinking it’s easy. It seems like there is news every day detailing a startup’s success at raising millions of dollars even before its fundraising period closed. But laying the groundwork for raising capital is just as important—and intensive— as laying the groundwork for your company. In the same vein, it also takes a tremendous amount of support. Regardless of whether a company is attempting to raise just a small amount of startup cash or millions of dollars from investors, the following challenges and mistakes could pop up at any time. Ignorance Isn’t Bliss A business’s best chance of reaching its fundraising or investor goals is by 14
November 2014
The research portion of your fundraising efforts is just as important as that pitch meeting with investors. being as educated as possible before jumping in. A hastily-made finance plan likely will not get your company where it needs to be. The following are a few things leaders might overlook or not spend enough time researching before jumping into the fundraising pool. Businesses are not clear on their vision. It would be very difficult to expect someone to invest in a company when the person selling
A business’s best chance of reaching its fundraising or investor goals is by being as educated as possible before jumping in.
that company is not convincing enough with their vision. Investors want someone who is passionate and articulate about the foundation on which the company is founded. And your investors are not the only ones who have to buy your company’s story. From the top down, your workforce has to be convinced as well: your own employees are your biggest assets when it comes to purporting 15
FINANCE
Don’t expect your investors to show up to the meeting ready to commit.
your vision and company culture. By putting your vision at the front and centre of every pitch for raising capital, you are demonstrating to everyone from an early-stage investor to a toptier VC firm that you and company are committed to making it a reality. Businesses are not educated about the market. Who is going to be buying your product and service? 16
November 2014
What hole does it fill in the market? How big is your potential audience? How quickly can it grow? A company needs to be able to answer these questions—along with dozens of others—to provide an adequate big picture to investors. The most important question you as the fund raiser need to answer however is how quickly your company and
R A I S I N G C A P I TA L F O R S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S
investors can get a return on the initial investment. Don’t forget to talk to everyone—from your parents to customers, mentors, industry analysts and more—to validate the market opportunity. Businesses are not sure how much money they actually need. Investors do not just need to know how the money will be spent but rather how much money will be needed. When asked, responding with “Well, I think about a million would do it,” is not detailed enough. Not only should you know exactly how much you need, but you should also know why you need it. Why do you need more marketing guys at this point? How much of the money will go to branding or rebranding efforts? Production? Training? Hiring? Know the answers to these questions before stepping into the boardroom.
Not only should you know exactly how much money you need, but you should also know why you need it.
Businesses are lacking qualified leaders in key positions. Depending on where a company is at the time of the fundraising efforts, it may already have a fully-functioning work force. However, like many startups and small businesses just getting their footing, it may only be a couple of people attempting to pull everything together. If that’s the case, get your long-term leaders in place pronto. A competent, entrepreneurialminded team will demonstrate the passion and drive it takes to succeed to the rest of the staff, as well as potential investors. By having a trusted team around you, there are several people to see opportunities from different angles, help answer the tough questions and to provide support in the toughest moments. You cannot— and more importantly should not—go into the fundraising process alone. Understanding Lenders & Investors First, it’s important to understand which type of fundraising the business is going to attempt. Lenders loan money for a period of time and expect to be repaid with interest. They are interested in risk 17
FINANCE
management and what capacity the business has to repay the credit that has been advanced to it. Businesses should seriously consider going this route if the owner is planning on running the business for the rest of the foreseeable future. Raising outside capital lets people know that eventually a business owner might be interested in selling. When pitching your fundraising needs to lenders, make sure you have a financial plan in 18
November 2014
place that details debt repayment. Investors on the other hand are interested in buying up a piece of the company, with long-term capital gains acting as the motivator. As the business’s stock increases, so does the investor’s return. There are several different types of investors, but one that gets a lot of media attention is the venture capital investor; this particular type of investor is looking for a business that grows quickly into a large and valuable asset.
Passion, a clear vision and a detailed list of what you need are all necessary for successful fundraising ventures.
The strike is unfavorable to investor confidence in the largest economy in Africa and has negatively affected politics and politicians
One of the most frustrating situations you can encounter during this process is the “maybe commitment.� Often, investors are not interested in being the first and want to see what other high-profile, sophisticated investors have already committed to your cause. Investors do not operate under the same sense of urgency those at the fundraising company do, so monetary commitments will most likely happen on their timeline. If you and your company 19
FINANCE think this might be a cause for concern in your situation, consider running crowdfunding efforts congruently. Understanding Platform Options Crowdfunding can be the sole way a business raises funds, or it can also supplement investor and lender commitments. Those looking for smaller amounts of money can appeal to consumer-use platforms like Kickstarter; entrepreneurs looking for fundraising efforts to surpass $1 million would have better luck on equity crowdfunding portals. Australia has several different crowdfunding options like the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB), ChipIn, CitiNiche, FieldTheory and iPledg, among others. There are hundreds of options and ways to go about raising the capital you need to make your company successful. Thorough, diligent research into these options, a strong vision and a passion for what you do will help you and your business reach your fundraising goals.
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All of your hard work will pay off when you hit your fundraising goal.
21
TECHNOLOGY
22
November 2014
5SUCCESSFUL STEPS TO A
CLOUD
STRATEGY Moving to a cloud-based strategy for your company is cost effective and efficient in the long run, but make sure your CIO puts in the work to establish the foundation for the cloud first. WR ITTEN BY: C O LI N M C CA B E, S EN I O R M A N AG ER O F PLATFO R M B U S I N ES S U N IT AT R ED H AT, A U STRA LIA A N D N EW ZEA LA N D
TECHNOLOGY THE CLOUD HAS been the subject of much hype recently, and with good reason. There are significant benefits of moving to the cloud, including shorter application deployment times and plummeting costs. These measurable benefits make it tempting for businesses to run towards the cloud. Right now the most challenging, important and strategic decision that CIOs face is how to build the right cloud for their business. CIOs that make the right choices can significantly improve their organisation’s competitiveness, flexibility and IT economics for the next decade or more. Fearing security risks and being locked in to unsuitable arrangements, many CIOs are reluctant to let go of the traditional model of capital expenditure, hardware budgets and data centres. In order to leverage the benefits of the cloud and avoid the risks, new architectures at the infrastructure and application levels are necessary. To fully benefit from the value that cloud computing offers, organisations should follow these five key steps. Understand Your Current Situation Many organisations, especially 24
November 2014
Evaluate what IT systems you have in large enterprises and government IT departments, have long utilised costly proprietary systems. These organisations will need to standardise legacy systems onto modern, standards-based hardware and software before embarking on a cloud strategy. It is vital that organisations take inventory of and develop a plan
n place. for existing IT infrastructure and applications. There may be assets, processes and skills in place that ideally position the organisation for a move to the cloud. Additionally, it is unlikely that an organisation will achieve strong benefits if it simply transfers imperfect or inefficient solutions and processes into the cloud. It can be worthwhile
to review existing systems and plan a migration to a common or standard operating environment. This helps eliminate the complexity created when one-off configurations and siloed systems are allowed to flourish. Without undertaking this step, it will be very difficult to add the further functions that enable a fully operational cloud deployment. 25
TECHNOLOGY
It’s important to understand the end goal of your new cloud system. Know Your Destination Not everything is suitable for cloud deployment. Moving to the cloud must enable the organisation to react with greater agility and speed to new requirements. While the cloud can deliver cost savings, these will only be of significant benefit if the application will perform well, fulfil customer needs and be manageable within the existing 26
November 2014
Right now the most challenging, important and strategic decision that CIOs face is how to build the right cloud for their business.
F I V E S T E P S T O A S U C C E S S F U L C L O U D S T R AT E G Y
processes and organisational structure. It is therefore vital to identify a workload that will actually perform in the cloud as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). To mitigate the potential risk of a significant cloud project it can be beneficial to start with a smaller project such as storing web services, email, intranet projects, data collection or social media in the cloud. Don’t Rush Cloud computing is not a revolution but rather an evolution. There can be a strong temptation to run towards cloud projects with the aim of realising benefits sooner. However, the flexibility inherent in open-source cloud solutions is ideal for a more organic, measured approach. As with most technology innovations, the costs associated with the cloud continue to drop, giving potential cloud users an incentive to proceed slowly. While cloud can offer significant business benefits, on-premise hardware infrastructure may still be the best approach for some businesses.
Organisations should carefully consider their options before pursuing a cloud strategy.
It’s not a sprint, it’s marathon. Implement parts of the cloud over time to minimise risk.
Collaboration Is Key A “DIY” attitude can put organisations at risk. Companies that can maximise and leverage the work of open source software have the opportunity to experience strength from the power of a network. Open source software is built on collaboration. It lets organisations reap the benefits of work others have done and further develop that to make it suit the business’s specific needs. It can significantly reduce costs and time-todeployment because it eliminates the need for organisations to do all of the development themselves. 27
TECHNOLOGY
You don’t have to build your system in house. Enlist an expert instead. A new software architecture is needed to fully leverage the agility of the cloud. Open source can be the pathway to that new architecture and offers two key benefits. First, organisations can run management toolkits that prevent lock-in to a proprietary silo. This gives businesses the freedom to change the cloud strategy where appropriate.
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Second is the ability to access the technical and commercial advantages that arise from cloud technology. A broad, open-source strategy underpinned by a software stack lowers costs and strengthens independence from software vendors. The open-source approach can also create change for the better in an organisation’s processes and working practices.
It is unlikely that an organisation will achieve strong benefits if it simply transfers imperfect or inefficient solutions and processes into the cloud.
Consider An Open, Hybrid Cloud Approach While it may seem simpler to implement a cloud strategy by completely replacing all existing applications and infrastructure, this is rarely the most efficient or costeffective approach. An open, hybrid cloud management approach offers an alternative without requiring organisations to just extend the 29
TECHNOLOGY
Replacing everything with the cloud may not be your best option.
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F I V E S T E P S T O A S U C C E S S F U L C L O U D S T R AT E G Y
Open hybrid cloud combines features of public cloud, private cloud and open source to deliver an environment that is more flexible and efficient and offers more choice through portability. existing set of proprietary to assimilate future advances technologies and products into in terms of capturing, storing the cloud (an approach that and accessing enterprise can transfer an organisation data. Organisations can adopt from one form of vendor lock-in emerging technology to fulfil to another). new business requirements and Open hybrid cloud combines to integrate new applications features of public cloud, private while protecting previous cloud and open source to deliver infrastructure investments. an environment that is more No matter what approach is flexible and efficient and offers chosen, organisations should more choice through portability. take into account the ease of Choosing open source management in a cloud and protects organisations from across different clouds, as well being locked into a single cloud as the ability to change cloud solutions provider, giving them providers as and when necessary. freedom to switch to other The decisions companies suppliers without incurring high make on cloud computing exit costs. This mitigates the risk today will directly affect of vendor lock-in that prevents competitiveness over the some CIOs from pursuing a cloud next few years. It’s important strategy more aggressively. to choose a cloud strategy Open source also provides that can adapt to changing Executive talks at picket line an adaptable platform, ready business requirements. 31
MARKETING
TH
CO
B
You h loyal c taken
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Month 2014
THE KEY TO
CONTINUOUS
BRANDING W R ITTE N BY: LA U RA C LO S E
have your logo, your mission statement and a few customers. But just because your business has n off doesn’t mean your efforts in branding are over.
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MARKETING WE’VE COVERED BRANDING a lot here at Business Review Australia. Small-to-medium enterprises make up a wide margin of business in Australia; with smaller companies come smaller staff sizes. As the owner, president or CEO of your SME, there’s a good chance you are in charge of (or at least have a big say in) the marketing practices of your business. Even if you are part of the management level or higher at a big company, you have some affect on how your brand is perceived. That’s why this month we’re turning our efforts to continuous branding. What happens after you have established your company culture and your brand, and you have a fairly comprehensive marketing plan set up? To continue to be successful, efforts must continue daily in branding. Every social media post, customer interaction or advertising effort your company makes contributes to continuous branding. In short, everything you do as a company is an important part of your brand experience. Social Media And Your Brand Evaluate your own business and brand strategy: have you considered that everything your 34
November 2014
Each tweet, Facebook post and Insta company does—both internally and externally—is an important part of both your brand and product experience? With heads turned to social media all hours of the day, you’re no longer just selling your product or service—you’re selling your brand, company culture and an experience for your customers, and every word and image you put out there combines into a unique picture of your company.
agram photo builds on your brand’s image. To continue to be successful in this landscape, your business must continually be evaluating its marketing efforts. According to an article published by BrandLogik, most companies only use their brand at a fraction of its full power. The market is crowded these days. There are several other people and companies offering similar products and services; what about your brand will set you apart from the crowd and noise?
Your brand experience. This makes your social media efforts and your website just as important as the product or service your company offers. “Social media in service of a product experience is not just media—it’s the experience of the product itself,” says Forrester analyst James McQuivey in his book Digital Disruption, Unleashing The Next Wave Of Innovation. 35
MARKETING
Are you utilising your social media at full power?
Companies willing to practice continuous improvement in their marketing and branding will see their brand evolve over time to showcase and highlight the product or service. Specifically, startups and companies that have a lean structure benefit from the evolution process of continuous branding. By utilising your brand’s power at full capacity instead of 20 36
Novemner 2014
or 30 percent, marketing costs can go down, saving smaller or new companies time, energy and money. Branding Through Product Or Service Innovation The natural process at any company is to improve a product or service over time. Creativity and innovation combine in product evolution, which
THE KEY TO CONTINUOUS BRANDING
Establishing a strong, detailed marketing plan from the get-go will be a guiding force in subsequent marketing ventures. then can supplement the evolution of a brand’s marketing plan. Let’s take a look at one of the most well-known brands in the world: Apple. The first iPhone was truly a radical product innovation. Since then, several augmentations have been made to improve the product. Once its big innovation was established, Apple has to only tweak its product from there. As such, each subsequent iPhone has been an improvement, both in hardware and software, but not quite the game changer the first mobile was. Continuous branding is necessary for product augmentation and vice versa, and product innovation is a great example of the necessity of continuous branding. Who would buy a new and improved iPhone if Apple’s marketers didn’t also update their
brand experience? Between some versions of the iPhone (the 5 and 5c for example), the improvements weren’t necessarily industry-changing. But Apple stores worldwide still had customers camping out and lining up around the block for a slice of the slightly different Apple pie. For your business, establishing a strong, detailed marketing plan from the get-go will be a guiding force in subsequent marketing ventures in the future. Each time your marketing strategy augments, it should build on the foundation already put in place. Whether these branding efforts occur in line with an actual product or service
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MARKETING
Most brands only operate at a fraction of their full potential. improvements and new features or just because your brand needs a boost, that strong marketing base plan is a great place to start. Keeping Your Promise To The Customer Companies are kept in business by trust: customers trust the business to provide a reliable quality product or service. Your brand then, is your 38
November 2014
promise to your customer that the company will continue to provide the reliable product or service for the foreseeable future. Providing this quality product or service is the obvious way a company builds and maintains that trust. But marketers have to build the brand in such a way that it appears trustworthy from its foundation and remains trustworthy through the life of the company.
As your marketing and branding strategy changes and innovates, keeping your company’s promise to its customers should be the main priority.
As your marketing and branding strategy changes and innovates, keeping your company’s promise to its customers should be the main priority. Continuous branding requires a keen eye for your brand’s potential and an understanding of augmentation over time. This promise from the company must be held central to marketing’s ideals when drafting new plans and strategies to support your growing and ever-evolving brand. 39
TOP 10
40
Month 2014
TOP 10: MOST VISITED SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
IN AUSTRALIA
Consumers are spending more and more time connected to and checking social media. We analyse the most visited sites for Australia. WRITTEN BY: L A U R A C LO S E
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TOP 10
10. Pinterest Pinterest, the virtual pin board or idea board, has recently added a lot of social capabilities to its platform, including the option to send pins to friends and a chat option. During the Apple Keynote address in September, Apple mentioned that Pinterest will be one of the few first apps that will be available on their new Watch. It’s a unique platform that offers something others don’t, allowing users to be curators over their personal fashion choices, inspirational content, and most importantly for retailers, products. The site has helped startups get discovered, and retailers regularly use Pinterest to draw business to their own sites. Nordstrom even used data about its top pinned items to create in-store displays.
9. Vine Vine is not quite as mainstream as many of these other services, but it has enormous potential if correctly leveraged. It’s Twitter’s video sharing app, which allows people to shoot and share six-second looped videos. Not quite a gif, Vine adds a simplicity to social media field, offering no editing tools and still providing a big return. One user explained Vine as a way to create “unexpected art.” For creative brands and brands that can demo a product in six seconds, this would be a useful tool in their social media arsenal. Like Instagram and Twitter, Vine also utilises hashtags, allowing users interested in a specific topic to find users posting relevant content.
8. Snapchat Although Snapchat is one of the relative newcomers to the social media game (it launched in 2011) it’s really taken on the mainstream and posted 42
November 2014
some big user numbers. Globally, over 400 million “snaps” — pictures that users can place text on — are sent each day to over 100 million active monthly users. Australia is currently a relatively small part of the user base, with close to 1.1 million users as of July*. A few people with inside knowledge of Snapchat have shared that a new Snapchat service—which would provide disappearing videos, new articles and adverts—may hit Australia in November. With the company’s recent round of financing expected to being the currently revenueless valuation of the company close to $10 billion, turning to profit will do huge things for this social media app.
7. Instagram With over 2 million Australian users as of July*, Instagram is quickly gaining a favourable reputation among the world’s most popular social media sites. The platform, for which Facebook paid $1 billion a couple of years ago, is particularly useful for visual and creative businesses like fashion, art, real estate and more. It’s also a great way for companies to share their company culture like community or charity efforts, fun business events and conference proceedings. Like on Twitter, hashtags are a useful tool for grouping together posts with similar topics and subject matter, allowing those interested to find relevant people and brands to follow more easily. Instagram is looking to releasing ads for its Australian users later in 2014, with numerous big companies already working with the social media platform to do so. 43
TOP 10
6. Twitter By now Twitter is just as well known as Facebook, although they have substantially less monthly users. The first popularised microblogging site, with close to 2.8 million active Australian users* is currently testing a “buy” button, which would allow Twitter users to favourite, retweet and then buy an item mentioned in the tweet. Twitter has only been in the Asia Pacific for a little over a year, but it is 44
November 2014
currently the fastest growing office in the region. As far as marketing goes, it’s good for just about any aspect: business and entertainment news, political movements, promoting a business’s most recent deals, informing customers, etc. It’s also a great way to engage with customers, and an easy quick way to get a brand’s message out there.
T O P 1 0 S O C I A L M E D I A S TAT I S T I C S
5. LinkedIn If you’re reading this magazine, chances are you have a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is social media for the workplace, although it’s not so much a social platform as it is a job search tool. The site, which allows people to post their resumes, experience and get recommendations from other users, also allows companies to post jobs and information about their business and gives people a venue to connect and network with likeminded individuals. LinkedIn has recently beefed up security on their sites, so the nearly 4 million monthly Australian users* can feel safer about sharing their personal information. In July, the website saw a noticeable increase with new and existing users in Oz, with more users returning to the site than previous months.
4. Tumblr Tumblr (or tumblr. as is its logo on the website) has a much younger audience in general than many of the social media options on this list. The microblogging platform was founded by David Karp and was bought by Yahoo! Inc. in 2013 for $1.1 billion. Don’t be fooled by the younger audience however. This hip, popculture savvy clientele is one of the wealthiest social media audiences of any other platform. The site, which hosts over 200 million blogs, may have a niche audience, but it’s very lucrative for high-end retailers—Tumblr produces the highest revenue per visit from mobile devices. 45
TOP 10
3. WordPress Some of the biggest names on the web like Flickr, TechCrunch and eBay use WordPress, the full-fledged, popular content management system. Over 6.2 million people used WordPress in July in Australia, and that’s just visitors. Around 23 percent of the world’s top ranked websites uses the platform. WordPress, which is free for basic usage, is an open-source blogging platform that is capable of 46
November 2014
hosting static and dynamic content, e-commerce and event calendars, audio and video podcasts, and more, thanks largely to an expansive plugin system and a supportive community. WordPress 4.0 was recently released, which wasn’t as big an update at 3.0, but still has some helpful updates. The challenge for this platform is to remain accessible for new users and novices—but they’ve been able to do so this long.
T O P 1 0 S O C I A L M E D I A S TAT I S T I C S
2. YouTube YouTube, the video streaming service owned by Google, is the second biggest search engine online behind its owner. With just under 13 million unique average viewers a month*, YouTube is one of the few big-name services that is still continuously gaining new users. Many market analysts believe that the service is on track to make a big impact on the advertising
media landscape, potentially drawing advertising budgets from local media companies. YouTube is a sweet sport where online video, big data and global advertising deals come together, which may give it a huge advantage over the next few years. Companies like Volkswagen Australia and Optus are just two of many examples that have funnelled advertising funds into YouTube.
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TOP 10
1. Facebook It should come as no surprise that Facebook is the number one most visited social media site in Australia. With close to 13.5 million monthly users in July*, Facebook has grown by around 200,000 users in the past two to three months. Although some brands are moving away from the platform as they tinker with privacy and visibility of stories, it’s still a formidable play in the social media market. The site is checked by over 9 million Australians every day. Hamish & Andy have one of the most popular feeds on the site, with 1,770,000 fans in Oz. Brands like Skittles and McDonald’s Australia nearly have one million fans. Recently Facebook launched an anti-cyberbullying campaign in Australia called “Speak Up Against Cyberbullying,” which was a $4 million initiative. 48
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F E AT U R E A R T I C L E S H O R T E N E D H E A D L I N E
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Volvo Group Australia
Behind the wheel of Volvo Gr Australia’s customer-centricit
Volvo Group Australia’s Peter Voorhoeve discussed the pa importance behind his, and Volvo Group Australia’s, custo business model. Written by: Andrew Rossillo Produced by: Nick Ledue
a:
roup ty
assion and critical omer-centric
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V O LV O G R O U P A U S T R A L I A
Volvo Group aligns with key business partners such as Linfox around mutual core values (Peter Fox, Peter Voorhoeve and Lindsay Fox).
Operating out of Volvo Group Australia’s headquarters in Brisbane, Peter Voorhoeve, President of Volvo Group Australia is responsible for the trucks business in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. This includes the responsibility of managing the Group’s suite of brands in these markets: Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, UD Trucks and Renault Trucks. Voorhoeve joined Volvo Group Australia in late 2013, bringing with him an exceptionally strong international and multi-brand background from various senior management positions within Volvo 52
November 2014
Group, including Truck Sales & Marketing Asia Pacific, Volvo Parts and Volvo Action Service. Voorhoeve takes great pride in continuing Volvo Group’s premier customer-centric values. “When I came to Australia, I knew this was going to be a very exciting market,” says Voorhoeve. “While I have worked in Asia, I come from Europe, where we are very much accustomed to trucks that pull a single trailer and carry anywhere from 42 to 52 tonnes, depending on the country. In Australia that’s your small transport. Around here a prime mover unit can pull up to 190 tonnes. w w w. v o
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From a technical and product point of view, this is probably the most exciting market we have in the world.”
With reduced infrastructure projects in the mining sector, combined with lowering prices of iron ore and coal, Voorhoeve Market Saturation and Slowing understands the increased pressure Economy Create Fierce put on the economy and expects Competition a significantly tougher economic “From a global perspective the climate in the upcoming quarters. truck industry in Australia is a small What does this mean for market. The Heavy Duty market is Voorhoeve and Volvo Group? “The only between 10,000 to 12,000 units. economy in Australia needs to make However, the number of brands a switch to focusing on non-mining that we have here is enormous; activities as a key revenue stream. 17 different brands. It’s a highly This switch is slowed down by the competitive market and you need relative strength of the Australian to fight very hard to gain market Dollar and that equates to a slower share. In addition, the market has economy. We need to adapt to decreased about five percent from this new economic climate for the last year, creating extra pressure,” next 18 months.” says Voorhoeve. “If I translate that into the transport Over the past 15 years or so, the industry, we have two big activities. Australian economy has largely been One of these is truck sales, which driven by the mining industry which are investments and closely related has led to a strong appreciation of to business confidence. The the Australian dollar. “To use a Dutch other is service and maintenance, expression, I had the feeling that this related to the amount of work was the country where the trees grew that our customers have,” says into the heavens,” says Voorhoeve of Voorhoeve. “Both areas are under the market opportunities in Australia, pressure. Reduced confidence “but the trees are growing a bit smaller in the economy leads to a smaller now. From a personal perspective, I Heavy Duty truck market - which see that as an ongoing factor.” we are currently seeing. The lvotrucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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service and maintenance side is fairly stable: there are lower activity levels in Western Australia and Queensland so trucks are driving less kilometres; on the other hand, New South Wales and New Zealand are going very well and Victoria is maintaining its momentum.” “Coming from Asia, what’s especially interesting in Australia is it’s a very mature market,” says Voorhoeve, “that means customer focus becomes more important. In Australia we’re on a level where your 54
November 2014
product quality and features are essentially hygienic; a base factor.” In a mature market, you have fantastic infrastructure, strong regulations and a good focus on safety, giving Volvo Group strong opportunities to go one step further and help customers run their businesses more efficiently. “It’s really by focusing on the customer that you drive the business,” says Voorhoeve. At his first dealer conference in February of this year, Voorhoeve w w w. v o
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said he had three words for his audience: “service, service and service.” Voorhoeve sees this as quintessential to Volvo Group’s market success. “Especially now with a market that’s cooling down, the extra attention that you can give to a customer - being there for them is key.” Voorhoeve explains that in this mature market Volvo Group Australia strives to be a business-solution provider. “We go a step further from just selling the product to actually endeavoring to be a business partner and helping customers run their business.”
of being genuinely connected with customers. This has truly nurtured his appreciation and intelligence in regards to dealing with customers. “I started out with Volvo in the Customer Contact Centre where I would help our customers work with our products and providing solutions, all day every day,” says Voorhoeve. “I try to put myself in our customer’s position, and focus on what I can do to exceed their expectation, to go the extra mile. That is personally very important — I feel good when my customers feel good. My customers can trust that I will do whatever I can to make sure they are more than happy with the Continuous Improvement: products and services they get from Obviously, Volvo Group isn’t the only me. If you focus on there always company in the world claiming to being room for improvement, you’ll focus on their customers. However, achieve a distinguishing factor. If Voorhoeve comes from customer you do something right, you build service, that’s his background, a relationship and continue doing granting a significant competitive business with that customer.” advantage in this specific area. Having run his own business prior to Long-running Environmental his position at Volvo Group as well Consciousness as coming from a family that was Voorhoeve continues to reinforce service minded, he has customer Volvo Group’s core values of Quality, service in his DNA, and is very much Care for the Environment and Safety. in tune with the critical importance You’ll find that in all of their products. lvotrucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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Australian Scott Harvey, who drives for SRH Milk Haulage, won by being the most fu
Fuelwatch championships (Joachim Rosenberg, Scott Harvey, Peter Voorhoeve, Cris
As countless people have come to know, quality is built into all Volvo Group product lines. While green consciousness isn’t necessarily unique, the Company lists care for the environment as a competitive advantage because they’ve maintained this environmentally friendly approach for over four decades. In 1972, as part of the Xxxxxxxxxx United Nations Conference on 56
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the Human Environment, Volvo recognised that they are part of the environmental problem, but also that they are determined to be part of the solution. It is clear Volvo Group continues to lead the way in their approach to Environmental Care. “The models we currently have on the road are very fuel efficient; more so than many other brands. Not only is the environment very dear to us, but
w w w. v o l v o t
V O LV O G R O U P A U S T R A L I A
S U P P LY C H A I N
uel efficient driver at the Volvo
stophe Martin).
fuel costs equate to approximately 30 percent of our customers’ costs, so creating fuel efficient models provides significant relief for our customers.” Cost-saving Fuel Efficiency Volvo Group’s focus on fuel efficiency is best demonstrated through their Driver’s Fuel Challenge, also known as Fuelwatch. The best competitors
out of 5,800 participants from 12 countries competed in the Volvo Asia Pacific Fuelwatch Championships, held in Gothenburg, Sweden this year. Australian Scott Harvey, who drives for SRH Milk Haulage, won by being the most fuel efficient driver at the championships. “I am very excited. It’s a great thing to win,” said Harvey after his victory. “And it should be a great motivation for everyone.
trucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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V O LV O G R O U P A U S T R A L I A Back home, I run a business with 120 drivers. If only ten of them show such improvements in terms of fuel efficiency, it means immense savings! It’s really great if you have such a focus.”
people die in road traffic accidents globally. Research shows that human error is involved in about 90 % of all traffic accidents. Driver fatigue or inattention is by far the most common cause of singlevehicle accidents. “This is not Legendary Safety Standards acceptable, which is why we work In a country where you drive with actively in the areas of safety, 150 tonnes upwards of 80 kph, aligning with key business partners safety is of the utmost importance. around our mutual core values,” While many companies do indeed says Voorhoeve. talk about safety today, the founders One way Volvo demonstrates their of Volvo, back in 1928, made it their concern for all road users is through mission, that as long as people are partnering with Toll in support of in or around their products, safety the Amy Gillet Foundation’s ‘Amy’s must be the principle design criteria. Share the Road Tour’ to highlight “We’ve been talking about safety for how to safely share the road with the past 80 plus years, backing all trucks and cyclists. of our products. The focus on safety Linfox is another well-known name in Australia is very significant, and connecting with Volvo through their we have a lot of people dedicated commitment to safety. Through to helping our customers focus on their dedicated Vision ZERO safety safety,” says Voorhoeve. program, Linfox is on a journey to Every year, about 1.2 million achieve zero fatalities, zero injuries,
“In Australia we’re on a level where your product quality and features are essentially hygienic; a base factor. And it’s really by focusing on the customer that you drive the business.” 58
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zero motor vehicle accidents, zero net environmental emissions and zero tolerance of unsafe behavior and practices. The current Qantas in-flight magazine features a safety card highlighting how Volvo Trucks and Linfox are working together to put safety first. For many of Volvo’s customers safety is not only a core value, it is smart business. Fonterra travels more than 90 million kilometres annually, collecting more than 17 billion litres of milk in New Zealand. Volvo and Fonterra’s latest advertising campaign highlights both companies’ commitment to safety for all road users. Superior Maintenance and Service Next to the products, the Company has a very strong and dense dealer network. Once the truck is on the road, Volvo Group does everything it can to ensure optimal operating conditions. When it comes to maintenance and repair Volvo Group strives to optimise its parts availability, which is in part made possible by their large warehouse in Sydney. Volvo Group is capable
of delivering 95 percent of all parts immediately from stock. The Company ranks parts availability for their customers very highly and are recognised within the industry for this. Volvo Group offers their customers the option of servicing trucks themselves or within Volvo Group’s workshops, of which they have 76 around the country on all the major highways. “There’s always somewhere local to our customers for us to service their trucks or assist them,” says Voorhoeve. “We have a very strong service and distribution network in addition to our comprehensive maintenance agreements, giving customers full control of their service costs.” Local Production Meets Demand of Local Conditions Volvo Group also has their own production facility in Australia. “It’s important that we produce our own vehicles here in Australia, because we recognise the demanding environment of this country. Every truck is different because every application is different,” says Voorhoeve. Volvo Group ensures
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V O LV O G R O U P A U S T R A L I A
Fuel efficiency is one of the most important factors for both the environment and a c
customer satisfaction through the top-performance capabilities of their vehicles and local production standards built to perform in Australia’s challenging climate conditions. “This allows us to customise our trucks for our customers.” “We have a very complete and competitive aftermarket service. We have a commercial crew set up which provides customer with a 60
November 2014
single point of contact, making it as quick and convenient as possible to get the services and solutions they need. It’s about proactive thinking with the customer. We always focus on what we can do to maximise the uptime of the truck: finance, parts availability, repair, affordable maintenance,” says Voorhoeve. From helping their customers maintain the integrity of their w w w. v o
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Company Information INDUSTRY
Supply Chain HEADQUARTERS
Wacol QLD, Australia FOUNDED
1928 EMPLOYEES
758 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
company’s economy.
It’s been 80 years since the first Volvo
shipments (keeping a giant tank of fish oxygenated and alive in one case), to delivering food to an entire busload of people waiting for repair assistance, the golden rule of serving the customer whenever and however it’s needed is applied at all times. “You learn to go the extra mile. Often, in customer service, exceeding expectations is in the small things,” says Voorhoeve. Voorhoeve applies an empathetic perspective at all times to assist the Company in better understanding how to serve, serve, serve.
truck was built back in 1928. Today, they are second largest producer of heavy trucks in the world, creating reliable transport solutions for clients all over the globe.
lvotrucks.com/trucks/australia-market/en-au/Pages/Home.aspx
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Liftronic Pty Lt
Liftronic’s Innovation Moves Upward in Vertical Transpor
A trustworthy and experienced supplier of elevators, based on 30 years of experience. Written by: Andrew Rossillo Produced by: Andrew Zhao
td:
s Company Ever rtation Industry
, escalators, service and advice
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L I F T R O N I C P T Y LT D
Lift Shaft
ESTABLISHED IN 1985, Liftronic is Australia’s largest independent lift company, trusted by Government Departments, property developers, Bodies Corporate, and private home owners to design, supply, install modernise and maintain thousands of lifts and escalators across all major Australian markets. The company has grown to rival the strength, services and products of its competitors, through a relentless dedication to new technology, drawn from an international network of the world’s leading lift and escalator manufacturers. Managing Director & Founder 64
November 2014
Milan Debelak founded Liftronic 30 years ago. He is likely the longest standing Managing Director within the vertical transportation industry in Australia. “We started with a very small group of people, working out of effectively a tin shed where we were doing all the operations,” says Debelak. “We were performing installations, administration and management, sales and tendering, maintenance, and service work. And we saw that the industry was becoming globalised, and that there was space for personalised service with an Australian view rather than an overseas view. We saw a great
CONSTRUCTION
Vehicle lift
opportunity. I didn’t want to work for one of the larger, globalised companies. We decided to go out on our own and to give the industry a try. We found a lot of our existing relationships and customers from when we were working in the industry were very keen to work with us.” “We started as a two-man band and have grown to be the largest independent lift company. We have built up a strong reputation in the industry that now spans four generations both here and overseas.”
in the Australian market, Liftronic is in a unique position to draw on new technology from multiple channels from across the globe, which provides a much broader resource than is available to many other companies who are limited to their own technology. Liftronic people have access to a broad resource of technology, engineering solutions, knowledge and experience. We have participated in almost every technological advancement in the past quarter century. For example, Knowledge and Experience Liftronic was among the first As the largest independent company Australian companies to employ w w w. l i f t r o n i c . c o m . a u
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Kinetek Elevator Solutions PREFERRED SUPPLIER OF LIFTRONIC PTY LTD.
Powering American brands since the turn of the 20th century, Kinetek is a global company that provides custom-engineered control, motor and drive system solutions for world class customers in commercial and industrial markets. In the Elevator market segment, Kinetek has combined the leadership of U.S. based Motion Control Engineering (MCE) and Imperial Electric Company; and China-based, KDS (Kinetek De Sheng), and NKET(Nidec Kinetek Elevator Technology (Wuxi)) into one innovative and comprehensive team – Kinetek Elevator Solutions.
CONTROLLED MOTION
DBD EDGE
It’s at the core of elevator performance, safety and ride comfort. At Kinetek, we design intelligent elevator controls and the machines that together move elevator cars safety and accurately. The controller provides intelligence; the machine provides power. The genesis of our control technology is from non-proprietary pioneer, Motion Control Engineering (MCE).
Kinetek’s Destination Based Dispatching (DBD) is an innovative dispatching system that enhances building traffic flow by intelligently matching passengers to elevator car. The technology behind this system uses complex algorithms, but the passenger experience is quite simple. After selecting the desired floor on a touch screen, passengers are directed to the elevator that will take them to their designation. It’s just that simple. Passengers can relax because they know in advance which elevator is coming to meet them.
MACHINE TECHNOLOGY ACPM gearless machines provide clean, efficient, compact power for machine roomless and machine room elevators – and are quickly replacing traditional geared installations. Kinetek is a global leader in ACPM machines and solid state controls. We have installations in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East, India, Turkey, Russia and Europe. Kinetek is ideally poised to provide solutions for today’s elevator market.
nidec-kinetek.com
SUPPLIER SUPPLIER PROFILE PROFILE
COMPANY NAME
KINETEK
Kinetek is a US-based company with design and manufacturing facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. With the most advanced core technology in elevator controls, motors and machines, Kinetek is not only a leading manufacturer of key elevator components, but also a provider of complete elevator and escalator packages. For new construction or modernization ranging from small foot-print machine-room-less (MRL) to high-speed machine room packages, Kinetek provides solutions. As one of the largest independent elevator component and equipment suppliers, Kinetek offers elevator contractors and building owners unparalleled freedom in selecting the optimum solution for the unique requirements of each building project and the lowest total cost of service and maintenance. With over 240,000 installations worldwide, Kinetek is known for its superior technology and quality, as well as its engineering capability in meeting local requirements and demands. Kinetek/MCE has a long history as an active member of the Australian market since the early 1990’s. In 2012, Kinetek became part of the Nidec Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of electric motors and related electronics components. With market capital exceeding 17.5B, Nidec Corporation includes more than 100 manufacturing and sales locations in 25 countries and employs more than 107,000 people. Employees: Xxxxx Established: Xxxx Management: Industry: Xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxx. Ashur Kanon, President, Kinetek Elevator Services: Xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxx. Ji Fan, General Manager, International Elevator Ongoing Projects: Xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxx Management: Xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxx xxxxx website: nidec-kinetek.com Website: address goes here as the last entry
L I F T R O N I C P T Y LT D
CONSTRUCTION
machine-roomless lifts, energy systems, cutting-edge controller dispatching systems, remote fault diagnostic systems and observation and special application lifts. Liftronic’s customers can be confident that they are dealing with people with the highest levels of expertise, who have access to the broadest range of new technology and the latest engineering solutions.
internally and externally. We’re very hands-on,” says Debelak. All the Company’s Directors are available to all clients in relation to any matters that affect the business. “We welcome this contact because it gives us detailed information on what our business is doing and what our clients need.” Liftronic is large enough to leverage size and scale, but still small enough that clients can pick Quality People Keep the up the phone and dial directors Company Going Up directly. “That’s something For 30 years Liftronic have installed extremely important to us. All our and maintained elevators and directors need to know exactly escalators across a broad spectrum what’s going on in the business. of Australian operating environments. It’s critical that we have that intimate They are justifiably proud of the contact with our clients. This way, we quality of their products, services and actually experience the issues.” This the expertise of their people. Liftronic’s allows Liftronic to better understand, people are some of the industry’s most serve and anticipate. highly regarded. Its management team “The directors continue to maintain is hands-on in Australia, available to this hands-on approach, but as the respond immediately to the needs of business grows it becomes a little more its customers. difficult. Therefore, we established an “A number of years ago, as the Executive Management Team (EMT) directors were spread over a larger, that work with us to cover the growth growing business, we decided we in the business. Our EMT work with us needed a plan. We need people and with our middle managers to run working with us that can have and grow the business.” personalised and direct contact “We develop strategies w w w. l i f t r o n i c . c o m . a u
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L I F T R O N I C P T Y LT D
Home Lift
CONSTRUCTION
horizontally and vertically with our Management Team and all our staff,” says Debelak. Thanks to this approach, Liftronic has also been able to establish and groom its employees in a manner that creates and maintains an existing network to make sure no responsibilities are ever lost track of, and we promptly and effectively attend to our clients’ needs.
“We differentiate ourselves through products, service and innovation throughout the business offerings we provide. We have great flexibility across a range of products that satisfy all vertical transportation needs. As a company, we probably have the widest range of products one company can offer within the vertical transportation industry,” says Debelak. “Part of what makes us unique is Capabilities that while we have longstanding and Liftronic is committed to their substantial business partners and Quality Accreditation and suppliers, we are not obligated to an uncompromising Safety provide a fixed product that would, for Management System. Their example, suit a multinational’s parent. responsive and highly trained We have great flexibility that allows staff are available 24/7 with us to choose product that best suits access to local inventory of quality the client. Also, we have complete spare parts and the support of a autonomy in that all our decisions customer centric “walk-the-talk” on products and services are leadership culture. done locally by people that run the The Company’s unique position business on a day-to-day basis as the largest Australian company in with a strategic long-term view.” the sector allows them to maximise Liftronic is bound to an ethos the service, operational and financial that ensures their clients deliverables that are valued by their experience the highest levels clients and their customers, in retail of quality, safety and service. environments, Government facilities, This approach has consistently transport hubs, residential towers, delivered superior passenger office blocks and private residences. comfort, increased uptime, and w w w. l i f t r o n i c . c o m . a u
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Escalator
has extended the operational lifecycle of their products. Focused on Developing Technology and Growth Liftronic works hard to leverage 72
November 2014
their cutting-edge position while continuously looking for potential acquisitions, companies with good value within their organisations, whether they are directly lift companies or have similar synergies to their own.
CONSTRUCTION
“Fortunately, we have a good amount of available funds and facilities which allow us to make relatively large acquisitions,” says Debelak. Liftronic is currently focused on developing technology and looking for acquisitions for growth. “We have some substantial suppliers and contributors. We consider our suppliers our partners in our business. We are working with them in great detail to develop new products in our industry,” says Debelak. Liftronic’s products, engineered components and architectural finishes are drawn from multiple supply chains that connect their customers to the latest and best solutions in the world. “This means cutting-edge products are not only driven by multinational competitors, we are also driving technology and efficiency improvements within existing and new products.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Construction HEADQUARTERS
North South Wales, Australia FOUNDED
1985 EMPLOYEES
140 REVENUE
+$40 Million
Liftronic’s Future “The Australian market has huge amounts of opportunity for a company that is offering quality product and high levels of services. We see people that are hungry for that. In addition, the Australian economy has a very good base for growth. We see a lot of opportunity both within our existing and new markets.” Above all, Liftronic is instilled with a level of integrity that is the foundation of customer relationships that spans decades and will quite surely continue to add decades to its peerless track record.
PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Established in 1985, Liftronic is Australia’s largest independent lift company, trusted by Government Departments, property developers, Bodies Corporate, and private home owners to design, supply, install, modernise and maintain thousands of lifts and escalators across all major Australian markets.
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Symons Group:
Symons Group Maintains Powe with Transport and Energy
Symons Group continues to grow its transport and ene nurturing family values and respect for local communiti Written by: Andrew Rossillo Produced by: Wayne Masciotro
erful Synergy
ergy services while ies.
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SYMONS GROUP
Warehouse Storage Racking Options
Symons Group continues to build on a foundation that began in 1984 with the establishment of Symons Transport. The group has now grown to also incorporate property interests and provide extensive services to the energy sector. Encompassing Transport, Energy Services and Waste Remediation Services, Symons Group provides innovative quality transport solutions, delivered safely and efficiently. The Group aims to exceed customer satisfaction expectations by using world-class, innovative equipment and a highly 76
November 2014
motivated, skilled team to continuously improve their systems. Symons Group’s management team and highquality fleet are ably supported by a high-quality driver team. The vast majority of the Symons Transport and Symons Energy Services operations are based on a large, multi-purpose site in Bell Block, Taranaki. The workshop base for the Group is split between Bell Block and Oakura, Taranaki. The Group is proud of its Taranaki origins and familybased values and has become well known for high quality, well-presented equipment, attention to detail and
ENERGY
Symons Transport insulated tanker unit loading Crude Oil at Tag Oil Cheal A Production Site
strict regard for safety practices. “We have a strong focus on HSE and quality,” says Symons Group General Manager Mark Robinson. “Not only are we accredited through the Tertiary Level Workplace Safety Management Programme (WSMP) with ACC, but we are one of the few transport companies to be accredited to Fleetsaver Gold level for our transport operations. We’ve invested significantly in this area in recent times and believe our commitment to this area is a strong point of difference. For example, we
were the first company in Taranaki to import grapple forks for our Symons Energy loaders because of the safety and efficiency improvements they offered. In addition, our environmental compliance in capturing waste, hydro-carbons on our sites is positively recognised by local authorities. And our trucks are all Scania, a brand renowned for their safety specifications.” The company considers all these factors to be especially vital in working with their customers because they are operating in local communities. w w w. s y m o n s g r o u p . c o . n z
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We've got you
covered
Currently, MiX Telematics monitors over 460,000 assets – including trucks, buses, vans and trailers – and records in excess of 800-million kilometres per month. Through a strong partnership with channel partner Vehicle Technologies, customers like Symons Group, NZ Bus and Fonterra in New Zealand are already reaping the benefits of: Optimised driver and vehicle management Improved driver behaviour Reduced fuel consumption Boosted safety Enhanced customer service
For more information, visit www.vehicletech.co.nz or call +64 4 567 1964.
• • • •
Truck / Oil industry parts supply Truck / Oil industry servicing and repairs Lubricant specialists Cummins parts and service agent
Need a part? You need us!
Family Values and Community Spirit As part of Symons Group’s commitment to family values, they continue to treat every customer as unique entities with special needs. This approach, combined with their growing high-quality fleet, yard capacity and facilities, together with their high-quality management and local and national partnerships, means the Company is also flexible enough to cater to a wide range of transport and energy sector needs.
ShedBoss Taranaki are a proud partner of Symons Group and providers of custom designed steel building solutions built strong, built right. DESIGN • BUILD • PROJECT MANAGEMENT
24/7 Call-out
www.shedboss.co.nz
McCurdy Engineering Limited 686 Devon Road New Plymouth 4341 Email: info@mccurdyeng.co.nz
06 769 6506
www.McCurdyEng.co.nz
Sheds • Awnings • Carports • Workshops • Barns • Commercial • Industrial • Rural
ENERGY
These family values and flexible strength are built on a 30-year history of being 100 percent family owned. “Graham Symons began the transport company in the early 1980’s,” says Robinson. “Prior to getting involved in trucking, Graham had developed farming interests in Coastal Taranaki. Initially, the trucking interests were an additional side line to farming, but over time grew to a more standalone business. Increasingly the transport company has grown with other divisions of the business emerging, such as Symons Energy Services and Waste Remediation Services.” Robinson points out that the entrance into the energy sector was largely based on bolstering the significantly seasonal element of the transport company. This created revenue diversification and reduced risk exposure. “In more recent years, Graham has established a small board and senior management team to provide a more structured, rigorous approach to managing the growth of the companies. Graham now chairs the Board, maintains key relationships, and has an active interest in new areas of development
for the companies,” says Robinson. Today, Graham’s children, Jane and Murray are currently on the management team. Jane recently took the lead role in HSE / HR while Murray has been in charge of the transport division for the last two years. Being family owned and Taranaki based is a big part of the brand and culture of the companies. “Despite significant growth, we’ve worked hard to maintain the family feel of the company and the ethos this brings, looking after our own people but also treating our customers with a real personal touch,” says Robinson. “Part of growing with the support of our community is also investing back into it. We like to partner a whole host of community causes in the province, such as junior rugby, junior surf-life saving, schools near to the areas we are based and around the sites we work, various children’s charities, a range of junior sports-people competing in national and international events, community infrastructure projects such as the development of the regional cycle velodrome and regional BMX track, the local Helicopter Rescue Trust, w w w. s y m o n s g r o u p . c o . n z
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SYMONS GROUP
Water Delivery for local community learn to swim program.
to name just a few. We are not an international company but a local one that intends to be around a long time. Part of being in a small community is doing our fair share to support people because we’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of support from the community ourselves. We strive to over deliver on the expectations people have of us but with a humble approach,” explains Robinson. Integration of Transport and Energy Services Exceeds Customer Expectations Symons Group’s Transport Services division has become 80
November 2014
synonymous with delivering safe, exceptional transport solutions to their customers. This division is able to provide a nationwide service specialising in the areas of bulk liquid transport (includes food-grade) and oil related services. “We have become renowned for innovation and our continued commitment to utilising the latest in technology and product innovation — our customers are receiving the safest, most efficient transport solutions,” says Robinson. Significant elements behind the Company’s competitive advantage include their strong HSE record, excellent presentation of the single, modern Scania brand fleet and
ENERGY
investing time and resources into constantly looking to improve the service they provide for customers. As part of that, significant, ongoing investments are also made towards high-quality equipment, such as trailers with certified bolsters and head boards, custom-built tankers, etc. Careful attention and resource application also goes towards driver training. Symons Energy Services feature specialised equipment and operators familiar with the handling and safety requirements of oil field equipment, including the transport of casing, drill pipe and assorted drilling equipment. One of the top priorities here is to achieve
zero harm to people, property and the environment while delivering an optimised service with highly experienced and trained staff. “We work with companies in the energy sector to understand their needs. To better meet these needs we have developed a large, multipurpose, environmentally friendly site with a range of services and facilities, including a number of service providers to operate in the Symons Energy Services yard,� says Robinson. By offering both Transport and Energy Services divisions, Symons Group is able to provide an integrated supply chain solution, offering the benefits of storage and inspection with logistical support w w w. s y m o n s g r o u p . c o . n z
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SYMONS GROUP of a transport hub. Through this, the Company can offer strong incentives for clients who choose to integrate their energy and transport services with Symons. “We provide a one-stop energy service hub that allows customers to have one point of contact (make one phone call) to access a whole range of logistical support services,” says Robinson. “Not only does this reduce time and administrative function for clients dealing with us, but it also improves the efficiency with which we are able to provide services as we are able to coordinate our own resources with a lot more ease than if multiple parties were involved in this process. We are able to take a lot of the hassle often associated with managing logistics away from clients and allow them to focus more on key aspects of their business.” “We can also respond much more quickly and effectively to emergency type situations. We are competitively priced but can save further costs by virtue of the efficiencies enabled through our integration. For example, there is far less downtime in working with 82
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Symons, and we also ensure that there is no charge on trucks when loading from within our yard, which is a significant savings in logistics across a drilling campaign.” Furthermore, Symons Group maintains an operating consciousness regarding legacy issues for the companies they work with. They maintain a high regards for HSE and environmental measures, ensuring that they are of the highest standard. This includes reducing their environmental imprint. For example, water they use through the inspection facility is rain water captured from their warehouses. Strong Investments and Looking Forward This financial year has seen a significant investment in the Company’s facilities and equipment, growing their capacity across the Energy and Transport areas. The Group is in the process of completing their third warehouse. Shed Boss Taranaki, a company specialising in providing custom designed steel building solutions, has been
ENERGY
responsible for the design, build and project management of all three warehouses. Shed Boss worked with Symons from early design stages, taking care of engineering, design, building consent documentation, all the way through to complete construction and project management. Shed Boss’ strong and right focus on their customers paired with their involvement in the steel building industry for nearly 10 years and 30 years of local experience in building and related trades ensured the safe and timely work for these warehouses. In addition, Symons Group also continue to invest in the transport area, increasing the overall equipment inventory of the fleet by approximately 20 percent, with trucks, food grade tankers and trailers being added. Robinson went on to discuss elements they’ll be pursuing to capitalise on this new growth: “We promote a culture of constant improvement, high expectations and innovation — there is a drive within the Group to always look to do things better than before throughout all of our operations. As part of this, we look forward to continuing to grow our team and continuing to develop the capability of our people to meet current and future challenges and opportunities. This includes continuing to work with existing and new customers to help improve their operations — we get a thrill out playing a strong role in seeing our customers succeed.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Energy HEADQUARTERS
Bell Block, New Zealand FOUNDED
1984 EMPLOYEES
140 REVENUE
Not Disclosed PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Symons Group began with the establishment of Symons Transport in 1984. The group has now grown to also incorporate property interests and provide extensive services to the energy sector. The scope and size of the transport division has also grown significantly.
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Rail Track Association Austr
The Rail Track Australia Association (RTAA the Interests of Rail Track Infrastructure From Small Beginnings – the Story Continues to Grow
Writ te n by : Dav i d B a in bri d g e
ralia:
A): Pursuing and Promoting
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R A I L T R A C K A S S O C I AT I O N A U S T R A L I A
The RTAA was formed in 1973 after the First International Rail Sleeper Conference was held in Sydney. This conference was the catalyst for the establishment of the Rail Sleeper Association which became the Rail Track and Sleeper Association in 1979. Following further organisational changes in 1983, the association became known by its current name - the Rail Track Association Australia (RTAA). The RTAA held thirteen successful rail conferences between 1973 and 2001 at threeyear intervals. These conferences were held in major locations in 86
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Australia and New Zealand and were well supported by the rail industry. They included guest speakers from Australia and overseas, providing a high standard of technical papers and information to rail professionals. Between conferences, and during the years 1979 to 1995, the Rail Track Journal was published by the RTAA. Its objective was to maintain a communication link between members. In 1996 this role was assumed by Track & Signal Magazine, with endorsement by the RTAA. The RTAA continues to provide technical and editorial
S U P P LY C H A I N
assistance to the publication while also regularly contributing articles.
Railway Association (ARA) that resulted in AusRAIL. For the first time, all five major Australian rail The Yellow Tie Dinner and industry groups joined forces AusRAIL Conferences to present the highly successful The inaugural RTAA Yellow Tie AusRAIL PLUS 2003 Conference Dinner was launched at the 1981 in Sydney. (The ‘five’ were ARA, Rail Conference, when guests RTAA, ARIC (now known as were presented with a selection RISEG), IRSE and RTSA). of coloured ties and scarves Since then, AusRAIL PLUS representing a rail theme. The Conferences are held every other yellow ties became the most highly year, alternating with the AusRAIL sought and the name stuck. The Conferences. The RTAA continues Yellow Tie Dinner was born. to maintain a prominent role, In 2001, the RTAA took a hosting a technical stream during new direction and secured an the conference as well as one of agreement with the Australasian the most popular social events on w w w. c o m p a n y u r l . c o m
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the Australian rail calendar - the Yellow Tie Dinner. RTAA Field Days Event While all of these changes were positive, the RTAA was still searching to clearly articulate and distinguish its purpose within the rail industry. A key challenge was ensuring the services provided to the membership were meaningful and good value for money. There was a strongly held view that, while the AusRAIL conference provided a meeting place for executives, professionals and lobbyists, the thousands of blue-collar railway workers also needed an event specifically targeted to meet their needs. It was also acknowledged that site-based rail workforces should be publicly recognised as valued contributors to the industry. Added to these imperatives, an event was needed for rail workers to engage in industry advances, learn about new technology, while also being able to meet rail executives that they did not often see on track. As a result, the RTAA’s Field Days event was established in 2006. While based on the International Exhibition for Track Technology held
in Münster, Germany, RTAA’s event has a distinctly Australian flavour. The fifth event was held this year with more participants than ever, including international delegates. Frank Franklyn Young Rail Specialist Award In 2008, the RTAA awarded its first Frank Franklyn Young Rail Specialist Award. The award seeks to encourage, reward and promote young achievers within the rail infrastructure industry by facilitating their travel to an international rail event. This prestigious award is presented at the gala dinner at AusRAIL. New Directions with an Eye on the Past In 2010, David Bainbridge was elected President of the RTAA, heralding a transformational rethink in the RTAA’s direction and approach. For the first time, a membership satisfaction survey was undertaken and the results were used as the basis of a three-year strategic plan, currently being implemented. The key focus has been to deliver a more member-focused w w w. c o m p a n y u r l . c o m
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approach. This includes targeting a membership base that is spread across Australia, and providing services accordingly, rather than being a Sydney-centric organisation. Implementing the strategy has not been without significant challenges however, and there has been significant progress in the eight key focus areas. These include: 90
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1. RTAA profile: become a credible voice for our members 2. Field Days Event: be bigger, better and more professional 3. Technical stream at AusRAIL: provide more relevant and higher quality papers 4. Networking events: offer professional events across Australia that are recognised as recordable
S U P P LY C H A I N
CPD credits for members of the Institution of Engineers Australia 5. Frank Franklyn Young Rail Track Specialist Award: increase applications and improve quality 6. Website, media and social networking: improve RTAA’s image and communication with members 7. Track standards: improve the RTAA’s working relationship with
RISSB and other organisations 8. RTAA performance: monitor member satisfaction through a second survey (due in July 2013). The results are impressive and there has been a 50% growth in memberships over the past three years. The RTAA has also modernised its image with a new logo and website representing w w w. c o m p a n y u r l . c o m
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this shift. There are many more achievements, with much work still to be done. The second membership survey will reveal the extent of progress, areas requiring continued focus and new challenges. Importantly, the RTAA will continue to encourage both individuals and corporate organisations to take up membership and play an active part in the industry. The Future – What’s Next? There are a number of key areas where the RTAA can add value to benefit the rail industry as a whole. These include: 1. Supporting the introduction of innovation to the industry which has the potential to save the lives of workers and members of the public. 2. Attracting and retaining young people into rail. 3. Increasing diversity within the rail industry, particularly encouraging greater participation in the new age of railways by women and Indigenous people. 4. Using social media tools to better share information and facilitate debate in the industry.
This includes using tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. While this may not come easy to many (older) rail colleagues, it is an essential part of communicating railmessages to peers, stakeholders and decision-makers. This will help secure the future of the rail industry in years to come. A Final (Personal) Note The RTAA has become recognised as a relevant and prominent member of the Australian rail industry community and the spiritual home of the Field Days event in Australia. Long may it remain so, and long may we continue to provide exceptional value to our members. The RTAA strives to continuously improve its service, to move forward with the times and serve the interests of the rail industry for the foreseeable future. I am passionate about continuing this journey and making our vision a reality. I thank all members who have humbled me with their support for the RTAA and my role as President.
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Liebherr-Australia:
Technology and Innovation Driving Manufacturing for Mining
The company’s high quality, 100 percent Liebherr-made Liebherr’s company culture. Written by: Laura Close Produced by: James Hayes
g Efficiency in
e products exemplify
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MINING IS A MAJOR part of Liebherr-Australia’s business plan, although the company has several other divisions successfully operating in the country. Since the onset of the mining boom, Liebherr has been extremely successful with 96
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earth moving, mining and crane sales, leading to an expansion of their facilities, including a recently completed, dedicated remanufacturing location in Adelaide. Liebherr-Australia, part of the global, family-owned company
Liebherr Group, began its tenure in Australia in the 1970s with the dealership network. In 1981, the Australian affiliate of the company was officially incorporated, and the commencement of their own operations under the Liebherr name.
Liebherr-Australia Head Office moved to the current location in Adelaide in the 90s. Remanufacturing c allows Liebherr to repair of all of their own components, which offers the customer a quality end product at w w w. l i e b h e r r. c o m . a u
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Proud to er i l p p u S r r e h b e Li
SUPPLIER PROFILE
International Lubricant Distributors (ILD) is an Australian based lubricant marketing company that exclusively distributes Sinopec premium lubricants to Australian and International markets. Sinopec is the world’s second largest oil refiner, China’s largest corporation, and the third largest company in the world. Sinopec are engaged in the full spectrum of energy exploration globally from exploration to finished end-user products. In just a few years, the partnership between ILD and Sinopec has impacted the Australia’s lubricant industry. With impressive credentials and an array of enviable experiences gathered from the world’s most reputable oil and lubricants companies. The ILD team leads the way in delivering a fresh new approach to doing business in today’s extremely competitive environment. ILD is Australia’s fastest growing Tier 1 supplier using the Sinopec branded products. ILD is specialised in the mining and earthmoving sector, particularly with companies that have a high expectation of technical support and innovative, flexible and cost efficient supply solutions. It continues to differentiate itself through the securing of large and sophisticated mining operations that require a level of service, technical support, product performance and innovation that the Australian market does not currently enjoy. ILD has a track record of providing truly tailored, innovative lubricant supply solutions to a number of premier Australian mining companies in remote locations across Australia, which includes its unique solution for bulk lubricants supply by using a combination of shipping/ logistic systems and on -site tanking/storage. ILD prides itself in being the market leader in the scope and quality of its Technical Service Offer. The service comprises a sophisticated set of analytical tools that will deliver outcomes including; asset health assessments, lubricant equipment surveys, delivery of extended component life, tracking of equipment performance and early warning of impending issues. ILD is here to give the lubricant industry a shake-up! Management: Tim Seeber - Managing Director, Mark Berkovic – Sales Director, Robert Boylan – Chief Operations Officer
Website: www.ilddirect.com
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA a reduced cost. Liebherr promotes a vertical integration model which allows l control of our cost and component life, in turn reducing costs for the end-user. “Our key customers that LiebherrAustralia predominately work with are tier-one mining houses which largely deal in iron ore and coal said David Pichanick, the general manager of sales and marketing at Liebherr-Australia. “The company
MINING
has been very successful with the likes of BHP, Glencore, Fortescue Metals Group, Leighton Group, and Downer to name a few. We’ve put such a big installed population of machinery out in those two commodities of late, and that machinery is working even harder now, despite the price of both coal and iron ore dropping. Both our parts and support business will continue to grow”
“The location will be a total rebuild centre for all of our major components for our mining operations in Australia and New Zealand,” said Pichanick. “All of the spare parts and components from the machinery will be sent back to Adelaide for remanufacture and then go back into the distribution outlets around Australia. We used to use various subcontractors to take care of this process, but now we will be able to do everything in house.”
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SJ HIGGINS GROUP IS PROUD TO HAVE PARTNERED WITH LIEBHERR AUSTRALIA TO DELIVER THE NEW WAREHOUSE AND OFFICE FACILITIES IN NEWMAN AND REDCLIFFE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. SJ Higgins Group is a leading mid-tier commercial building contractor with a reputation for excellence, quality and reliability in the delivery of construction services.
MINING INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION COMMERCIAL
HEALTH AGED CARE RETAIL COMMUNITY
Over the last 34 years, we have successfully delivered in excess of 1500 projects across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia.
WWW.SJHIGGINS.COM.AU
PLAN DRIVE DELIVER
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA New Facilities Liebherr-Australia recently invested over $170 million to complete new support facilities in Sydney and Newman Western Australia. Existing properties in Mackay, Mt. Thorley, and Perth were expanded to accommodate the company’s goal of continuing to meet our customer needs. The crowning jewel of the company’s expansion efforts is the remanufacturing facility in Adelaide. Construction started in January of 2013 and was completed in August of this year to a cost of around $80 million. The facility will be hiring
SUPPLIER PROFILE
MINING
around 138 new employees over the next year and a half out of the South Australian job market. “The rebuild centre focusses on all of our major components for our mining operations in Australia and New Zealand,” said Pichanick. “All of the spare parts and components from the machinery will be sent back to Adelaide for remanufacture and then go back into the distribution outlets around Australia. Our business had a very decentralised model previously; however we are now consolidating everything under the one roof. The disassembly area includes a wash-bay, shot-blast,
SJ HIGGINS GROUP
SJ Higgins Group is a leading mid-tier commercial building contractor with a reputation for excellence, quality and reliability in the delivery of construction services. Our portfolio covers various industries and geographical localities, demonstrating our technical expertise and strong reputation within the construction industry. SJ Higgins Group offers a broad range of services and methods of project delivery, including: design and construction, project management, construction management, fixed lump sum, guaranteed maximum price Website: www.sjhiggins.com.au w w w. l i e b h e r r. c o m . a u
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LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA
Xxxxxxxxxx
disassembly work-cells, quality control station and machining. There are over 2,000 locations for pallets in the SEU warehouse, as well as cylinder and rod storage, a place for REMAN planning and a production office. The assembly area includes 104
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a paint booth, another quality check station, 12 wall-travelling cranes and four overhead gantry cranes. 100 Percent Liebherr Vertical integration is one of Liebherr Group’s strategies. As
MINING
the Liebherr family built the brand and the business, they have consistently found ways to develop the company’s own technology in house; the machinery the company offers is much more efficient and cost-saving for the end-user
because of this business strategy. “The most important thing for us is controlling the quality and reducing the cost where we can,” shared Pichanick. “We can do this because of our vertical integration model. We want to be able to provide our w w w. l i e b h e r r. c o m . a u
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Tooth & Lip System MORE PRODUCTIVE. SAFER. LESS MAINTENANCE. ESCO products are trusted at mines worldwide for productivity and safety, and the Nemisys tooth and lip system is engineered to deliver those same benefits. The optimized lip is better sized for today’s machines and the streamlined profile maximizes production. The hammerless tooth and shroud systems help reduce maintenance costs through improved reliability, faster and safer replacement, and improved lip coverage. Available as a complete lip system or a stand-alone tooth system.
Š2014 ESCO Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
escocorp.com
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA customers with the lowest cost per tonne on the market through the product lifecycle You’ve got to have a good quality machine that’s reliable, but to maintain our reputation it has to be the most cost-effective machine on the market. Liebherr-Australia has built that reputation.” A way the company successfully reduces costs is through their innovation process. When a prototype is made, it’s already been well designed and engineered that it goes to work right away. With research and development undertaken in house, and a high
MINING
regard for innovation, LiebherrAustralia are able to produce the right machinery the first time around, instead of needing several prototype models. This success is only possible with direct customer feedback and input through the research and development process phase. Partnership with Detroit Diesel Although the goal of Liebherr is to design and produce 100 percent company-made products, they still work with outside suppliers on some components. Detroit Diesel is a major supplier for engines, and
SUPPLIER PROFILE ESCO ESCO products and services help leading Australian mines lower their cost per ton. We offer a comprehensive range of G.E.T, lip systems, buckets and truck bodies that increase safety and productivity, and are supported by our network of local supply and service facilities across the country. Contact ESCO today to learn how we can help lower your total cost of production while getting the most out of your equipment. Website: www.escocorp.com
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GREAT PARTNERSHIPS ARE BUILT ON SOLID CONNECTIONS.
Dexion速 is a registered trademark of Dexion (Australia) Pty Limited. FSA/DEX1049
Dexion partnered with Liebherr to provide a storage solution that delivered uninterrupted availability and maximised reliability performance across their business. To find out how Dexion can provide tailored storage solutions for your business, please visit dexion.com.au or call 1800 100 050.
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA supplies the engine for the previous generation of the company’s electric powered mining truck; the largest in the world. “This specific truck is very dependent on the engine,” commented Pichanick. “The reliability and the innovation that Detroit Diesel supports us with is incredible. They make a very good product, and are on the same wavelength as LeibherrAustralia when it comes to making sure we are delivering what we need to for our customers.” Evolution of Product Life After fourteen years in production
SUPPLIER PROFILE
MINING
and over 350 units globally, Liebherr ensures its T 282 Series Haul truck continues to provide business partners the latest in technology, through strategic investment in product evolution. The highly efficient IGBT Drive System and its class-leading payload to weight ratio ensure maximum productivity and performance. In May 2014, Liebherr proudly launched the next exciting evolution for the T 282 Series Haul Truck: the T 282 C Extended Life Profile, which is the result of an extensive Liebherr international collaboration project, focussed on enhancing
DEXION LIMITED
Industry: Dexion is a leading global storage solutions provider, solving the materials handling challenges for our customers from the office to the warehouse. With over 65 years’ experience and operations throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East, Dexion provides seamless integration of world’s best practice products and management systems, to deliver the best in safety, space optimisation, security, and return on investment. Services: Dexion provides specialist storage solutions to support retail, health, education, security, art and artefacts, FMCG and distribution industries. Management: Paul O’Keefe – Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Macnab – General Manager, Integrated Systems, Craig Landon – General Manager, Racking Solutions, Andrew Angus – General Manager, Commercial Solutions
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and increasing the T 282 C product life cycle. This delivers increased economic machine life, resulting in substantial reductions in total cost of ownership for Liebherr business partners.
them a career and an exciting and enjoyable place to work. LiebherrAustralia does that.” Pichanick was very passionate when talking about how the company treats its employees. Liebherr-Australia has many A Passion To Work employees that have length of “The most important thing in any service dating 10 to 20 years at the business is you have to value your company, and one man who just people. A lot of companies forget celebrated his 50 years of service they are successful only by the great with the company this year! people they have. You have to give “You know what sets Liebherr
CALTEX KEEPS YOUR BUSINESS RUNNING SMOOTHLY. Caltex are a trusted and reliable supplier of quality lubricants to the mining industry. Caltex’s range of mining lubricants includes well-known and trusted brands like Delo, the first compounded diesel engine oil lubricant introduced in 1935, plus a range of products specifically designed for the mining industry such as Caltex Specialised Lubricants. Combined with on-site technical support and strong national supply capability, Caltex has secured a reputation for keeping the mining industry running smoothly. Contact Caltex on 1300 364 169 or visit www.caltex.com.au/lubricants to see how we can help your business.
Lubricants
Power Step has been associated with Liebherr Australia for the past 10 years providing safety access systems for its Shovels, Excavators and Mining Trucks. Several mining houses have opted for the Power Step access system because of its performance and committed product support. There are over forty Liebherr machines in Australia with the Power Step access system and we expect to increase this number of systems over the next few years. Power Step also exports its products to Africa, North and South America, South East Asia; and are supported by a number of appointed distributors in several locations around the globe. Power Step provides safety, efficiency, comfort and cost savings with its 100% commitment in after-market support. A Power Step system is one step in the right direction.
www.powerstep.com.au
MTU – Lowers your cost per tonne
Industry heavy-weights rely on MTU’s Series 4000 engine platform, when investing in new mining equipment or to extend the life of their established mining fleet. With proven reliability, greater efficiency and optimised engine life, the MTU Series 4000 is rugged and tough, continuously delivering in extreme conditions, no matter what – which all equates to lower per tonne costs. MTU Detroit Diesel Australia backs all of this through its unparalleled onsite service and product support excellence, to ensure maximum ROI, performance and uptime. 1300 688 646 mtudda.com.au
Power. Passion. Partnership.
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA apart? We have a culture where everyone is driven by the customer’s needs and passion for the long term outcome. It’s all about our Core Values! “Our employees just want to be people that serve their customers” said Pichanick. They want to do a good job and are very proud of what they do. We all build trust in, and we respect each other for who we are and what we can bring to the company. If everyone’s committed 100 percent every day to giving the
MINING
customer what is promised, and people enjoy what they’re doing, we consider it a success.” The Liebherr Way Like any successfully run company, Liebherr is in the business of meeting the high expectations of their customers. The company is not only selling a product, but the support and maintenance of the product for its lifespan. To keep their customers coming back, Liebherr provides not only exceptional
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LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA service but also high-quality customer support and interaction. The company provides almost complete visibility into the design process for the customer, allowing them to provide feedback throughout the process. “We listen to the customer and develop a product they really want,” said Pichanick. “There’s so much passion in the business, and that’s a big part of the reason we’ve become so successful and enjoy what we do. Everyone that works at the company is proud and really wants to become part of that journey to become successful. The customers
MINING
really enjoy it as well; they get great visibility into our business. They see the simplicity: if there’s a problem, it gets fixed very quickly. That’s just the way the business works.” Liebherr-Australia doesn’t offer the whole range of products their competitors have. Although they manufacture for the niche market of digging and hauling dirt, it’s one of the most important parts of the mining process. Their goal throughout is to offer the most cost efficient and effective model that produces throughout its entire lifespan. By developing their products alongside their customers,
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Bosch Rexroth, the Drive and Control Company, is a leading global manufacturer for all facets of industrial, mobile and automation applications. This is demonstrated by our partnership with Liebherr as an OEM and locally for critical component refurbishment.
1800 Rexroth
sales@boschrexroth.com.au www.boschrexroth.com.au
IN THE WEST Brad Evans: 0408 167 195
WORK SMARTER WITH LINDE NEW | USED | RENTALS | SERVICE | PARTS | FLEET MANAGEMENT | TRAINING 1300 135 463
www.lindemh.com.au
IN THE EAST Geoff Shepherd: 0418 219 869
LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA
MINING
they produce the product that the customers need and want, not a product the customer must adapt to. As for growth, the Liebherr organisation thinks long-term for the strategic plans. “The third generation of the Liebherr family is now coming through the business,” said Pichanick. “. We must continue to build our reputation in order to grow and continue our success. If the family continues to invest the way they do, we will always be one step ahead of the pack. All of the company’s research and development is self-funded. For an innovative, technological efficient company like us, this strategic plan will carry us far.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Mining HEADQUARTERS
Para Hills West, Australia FOUNDED
1981 EMPLOYEES
600 REVENUE
For the Future Liebherr’s goal is to be the best leading supplier and to support business for mining equipment. This goal isn’t just for Australia, either. “We want to not only to continue to supply the Australian market, but grow our product and position from a global perspective Australia is somewhat of a benchmark for the rest of the world in mining, so if we get it right here we can get it right for the rest of the world. As there are a lot of Australian mining companies that are mining and other parts of the world. That’s why we put so much energy into doing so well in Australia.”
$600-700 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES X Since its inception in Australia in 1981, LiebherrAustralia has expanded rapidly, with offices throughout Australia and New Zealand. The company sells and supports a range of inhouse designed, produced and maintained products include crawler cranes, mobile cranes, deep foundation machines, earthmoving equipment and mining equipment.
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Citic Heavy Industrie
CITIC HIC Continues to Dominate as a Heavy Machinery Manufacturer
CITIC HIC is a market leader in China with equipmen successfully in China and around the world (includin America, Africa and Australia). Written by: Laura Close Produced by: James Hayes
es:
a Mining and
nt operating ng Asia, Europe,
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CITIC HEAVY INDUSTRIES
large automatic welding machine
CITIC HIC BEGAN its stellar track record of success back in 1958. After more than 50 years of evolution and development it has become a significant global supplier of mining, cement and metallurgical equipment. Their manufacturing facilities are located in Luoyang, China, and Pontevedra, Spain. CITIC HIC has offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, South Africa and Spain. CITIC HIC is the second-largest manufacturing facility in China. As part of this, the Company is especially proud of its 18,500t forging press, which is the world’s largest, capable of handling 120
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a 400 tonne single piece forging. In addition, their large casting workshop can pour one of the world’s largest single steel castings. “We have a melting capacity which is virtually unheard of in the western world, equaling 900 tonnes of molten metal that we can pour,” says Citic Heavy Industries CEO Rajiv Kalra. These robust and comprehensive facilities help enable the HIC to produce over 200,000 tons of quality equipment annually. “We design equipment according to both standard designs and made-toorder designs,” says Kalra. “The madeto-order designs usually include large
MINING
Sino AG Mill
grinding equipment for applications in the mining industry, mainly copper, gold and other base metals.” CITIC HIC also produces premium grinding mills, scrubbers, crushers, kilns, coolers, hoists, reducers, steam turbines and compressors. CITIC HIC also manufactures heavy castings and forgings, as well as electric/hydraulic control and lubrication systems. Their factory in Luoyang covers more than 3 million square meters, of which 2 million square meters is under cover. It has a total workforce of approximately 10,000 employees of which more than 1,200 are engineers.
Major Mining Equipment “The largest of the grinding equipment that we have supplied so far are 12.2 metres in diametre and 11 metres long,” says Kalra. “Each of these has 28 megawatt drives (28,000 kilowatts). There are six of these being supplied in Australia, two of these lines are in operation right now, and the other four are set for operation by the end of this year. CITIC HIC has the capability to design and manufacture Grinding mills up to 13.7 m (45 ft) diameter with 35 MW gearless drives and 12.8 m (42 ft) diameter with dual 12 MW drive geared mills” w w w. c i t i c - h i c . c o m
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Reliability, Longevity & Low Cost of Ownership come standard with every WEG. WEG employs 3,000 engineers to make sure the products and solutions sold to customers in more than 100 countries are not only high efficient and low cost, but most importantly that the products currently installed in factories, mine sites, hospitals, ships, oil and gas platforms and refineries, water treatment plants and providing savings that they have been designed and tested for. We are seriously committed to your business by committing to constant research and development.
WEG Australia Pty Ltd
www.weg.net/au
Tel: 03 9765 4600 MELBOURNE | SYDNEY | BRISBANE | ADELAIDE | PERTH
SUPPLIER PROFILE
WEG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD Employees: Over 28,000 Worldwide Established: 1961 Industry: WEG is a global player in the supply of electric motors & machines, control and automation products, and within the power distribution sector, with global sales now exceeding US $3-billion. Product lines include LV/MV and HV motors, the latest generation of transformers, LV control gear, generators, geared motors, inverter drive systems, soft starters, LV and HV explosion proof motors and smoke extraction motors.
Services: WEG employs a large team of sales and engineering professionals, and along with a dedicated service team will ensure your project receives the highest level of technical support, from inception right through to the critical commissioning stage.
Ongoing Projects: Our experience and references covers all Industry segments, and we are currently involved in Iron Ore, LNG, Coal, & Sugar projects throughout Australia.
Keys to success: WEG’s vertically integrated business model ensures that we control all aspects of the manufacturing processes, ensuring the highest levels of quality from the copper wire to the paint. In conjunction with that, a continuous commitment to research and development provides a constant stream of product innovation that guarantees products that customers want.
Future Developments: The WEG growth will continue with the ongoing expansion of its global manufacturing facilities, which are currently based in 10 countries across South America, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and the United States. Apart from emerging manufacturing capabilities, the company remains focused on new product developments through its R&D program, and will continue to expand the product ranges in Motors, Machines, Automation, and Energy.
Management: Romo A. R. Herzog – Managing Director Richard Walker – Sales and Marketing Director
Website: www.weg.net/au
CITIC HEAVY INDUSTRIES Mining Industry Jaw Crushers
“As far as the standard equipment is concerned, we also produce giant jaw crushers. These are used after the mining companies complete their blasting. They bring their blast material to giant dumpers, and the dumpers feed directly into our giant crushers. On average, the blast material is approximately 1 - 1.5 metres in size. Our giant crushers process the materials down to approximately eight inches in size,” explains Kalra. The Company also produces the highly impressive CITIC-HIC AJ (Auto Jaw) Range of single toggle jaw crushers. These incorporate the use of a hybrid cylinder (patent pending) toggle system. The new design of toggle system has made the operation and maintenance
MINING
of the jaw crusher is simpler and safer than other jaw crushers currently available in the market. The traditional tension rod system has been eliminated and replaced by a hybrid cylinder, the toggle arrangement not only allows for the equipment to be easily adjusted. This design also provides tramp relief for the equipment which adds another level of protection to the machine and minimises potential damage to the crusher when tramp material enters the crushing chamber. An added advantage of this system, the crusher is able to be adjusted while the machine is running reducing which improves the availability and productivity of the crusher. The toggle system has also been designed with maintenance in mind, the toggle system pivots outward to create easy access to the toggle area for maintenance purposes. Largest Design and Manufacturing Kalra points out a unique element to the Company’s approach, highlighting that they are “likely the w w w. c i t i c - h i c . c o m
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BGRIMM MACHINERY & AUTOMATION
China’s Top Supplier of Mineral
BGRIMM MACHINERY & AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD is one of the top players in the world ushering in advanced technology and equipment serving the industries of mineral processing and metallurgy. The company is not only the major research undertaker in National ERC in area of metallic & non-ferrous metallurgy, but also a trust supplier offering packaged solutions integrating design, equipment as well as engineering service.
bkjd@bgrimm.com
www.bgrimm-mat.com/en/
Turning Rock into Gold by Delivering Efficient Solutions Creating Value to Achieve Reciprocal Benefits with Clients
Processing Equipments
• • • •
Flotation Equipment Magnetic Separator Gravity Separator Hydro-metallurgical Leaching Equipment
+86-10-6329 9009 +86-10-6329 9020
• • • •
Agitating and Mixing Equipment Fine Grinding Equipment Trackless Underground Equipment Lab Equipment
SUPPLIER PROFILE
BGRIMM MACHINERY & AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD Employees: 216 Established: 2010 Industry: BGRIMM-MAT is one of the top players in the world ushering in advanced technology and equipment serving the industries of mineral processing and metallurgy. The company is not only the major research undertaker in National ERC in area of Metallic & Nonferrous Metallurgy, but also a trust supplier offering packaged solutions integrating design, equipments as well as on site service.
Services: Equipment, technology and solutions for industries of mineral processing and metallurgy. In addition to the worldwide leading products like large-scale flotation cell and magnetic separator, the company provides a complete range of equipments for mineral processing from fine grinding, separation by gravity, flotation, magnetic separation to de-watering process. - Underground vehicles and equipment - Engineering Service
Ongoing Projects: TOROMOCHO Copper Mine Project in Peru: offered 28 units of KYF-300 (300m3 in volume) flotation cells and 33 units of other flotation equipments. SINO Iron Mine Project in Australia: Offered totally 312 sets of magnetic separators. LUMING Molybdenum Mine Project in China: offered 18 units of KYF-300 flotation cells.
Keys to success: BGRIMM-MAT employs lots Chinese famous experts, who are dedicated to developing various high-efficiency and energy-saving equipments for mineral processing and metallurgy. With ISO 9000 quality system certified, BGRIMM-MAT places the first priority on quality management. BGRIMM-MAT always takes care of every detail requirements, and customizes equipment design. Future developments: World Leader in Technology and Equipment for Development and Utilization of Mineral Resources
Website: www.bgrimm-mat.com/en/
CITIC HEAVY INDUSTRIES
MINING
Sino Grinding Mills Lines
largest company in the world in our specific industry who does the design and the manufacturing�. CITIC STIRRED MILL (CSM):
CITIC STIRRED MILL (CSM) 3D MODEL CITIC has developed a range of vertical stirred mill with advanced features to handle wide range of regrind and fine grinding applications. Three units of CSM1200 are currently under manufacture for project in South America, there units will replace the existing conventional regrind mills in copper mine. About Sino Iron Project: The massive Sino Iron project is being developed at Cape Preston, 100
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Liquid Resistance Starters + Slip Energy Recovery Drives + Variable Speed Drives + Soft Starters + Motors + Power Compensation
CSE-Uniserve High Performing Power and Motor Control Solutions for Mining CSE-Uniserve has been providing high performance electrical equipment and services to Australian and international mining infrastructure projects for more than 35 years.
Our extensive range of products and depth of applications expertise delivers complete project solutions across power system protection, automation, motor & drive technologies.
Products offered include our Australian manufactured Liquid Resistance Starters, Slip Energy Recovery Drives, LV and HV Variable Speed Drives, LV and HV Soft-Starters, Active & Passive Harmonic solutions, Power Factor Correction and High Voltage Motors.
CSE-Uniserve is committed to the ongoing support of the mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, transport, utilities, energy/renewables, defence and government sectors. We are your partner for advanced motor control, protection and industrial communications solutions.
Design + Supply + Installation + Commissioning + Training + Service
CSE-Uniserve has sales and engineering offices in locations across Australia. Sydney
Melbourne
Perth
Brisbane
10 Columbia Way Baulkham Hills NSW 2153 Tel: 02 8853 4200
Unit 19, Level 1 75 Lorimer Street Docklands VIC 3008 Tel: 03 9245 1700
45 King Edward Road Osborne Park WA 6017 Tel: 08 9204 8002
Unit 2, 56 Lavarack Avenue Eagle Farm QLD 4009 Tel: 07 3861 7777
Visit our website: www.cse-uniserve.com.au
CITIC HEAVY INDUSTRIES kilometers south west of Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. It is the largest magnetite mining and processing operation in Australia. The Sino Iron project is focused on delivering a world class magnetite iron ore development
SUPPLIER PROFILE
MINING
which will add value to the Western Australian economy through significant downstream processing, employment, community benefits and international technology transfer while balancing social and environmental considerations.
CSE-UNISERVE PTY. LTD
CSE-Uniserve provides high quality equipment and engineering services to all electrical industry sectors, including mining and minerals, utilities, transport and process industries. Our core values are technical competence and customer focus, delivered under global quality standards. Our goal is the provision of world leading products and solutions, implemented by our highly experienced teams. Our Power Conversion technologies deliver equipment and solutions for power quality, motor starting and speed control; our Protection and Automation technologies provide protection and data management systems across industries and our Tetra Radio solutions provide high availability voice and data communications. Website: www.cse-uniserve.com.au w w w. c i t i c - h i c . c o m
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CITIC HEAVY INDUSTRIES
Technical Centre
Once operating, the project will mine about 140 million metric tons each year and the processing plant will handle approximately 80 million tons of material. This material goes through in-pit crushers before being transported to the concentrator. The crushed ore then enters giant grinding mills, the most powerful in the world. There will be six grinding mill lines, each using an autogenous (AG) mill 12.2 m (40 ft) diameter Ă— 11 m (36 ft) long with a 28 MW gearless 132
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motor followed by a 7.9 m (26 ft) diameter Ă— 13.6 m (44.6 ft) long ball mill, each with two 7800 kW motors (44 MW in each of six lines) and standing more than 17 meters high. The final product from these large regrind ball mills using small grinding media will be approximately 28 microns. The mills will produce a fine ore stream which enters magnetic separators to become a concentrate. The concentrate will be thickened and
MINING
stored before being pumped 25 kilometers to the port, where it is filtered to reduce moisture. From there, the concentrate will be exported for use in steel making. The world’s largest AG mills (12.2 m diameter × 11 m long with 28 MW drives) and six 7.9 m diameter × 13.6 m long ball mills with dual 7.8 MW drives which are design and manufactured by CITIC HIC. CITIC SMCC Process Technology CITIC SMCC Process Technology Pty Ltd (CITIC SMCC) is a newly formed subsidiary company of CITIC HIC Australia, following the exclusive 100 percent acquisition of SMCC Pty Ltd and its IP by CITIC HIC Australia (100% owned by CITIC Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. China (listed on the Shanghai stock exchange) on 6th July 2012. CITIC SMCC is based in Brisbane, Queensland Australia, and has commenced to provide technical services to various mining projects since January of 2013, mainly in the area of comminution circuit design, technology and equipment selection, and optimization of mineral processing plants. The formation of CITIC SMCC will expand the CITIC HIC’s current technical services and provide more complete solutions to its customers with the best suited solutions for milling technology selection, comminution circuit design and plant optimisation.
Company Information INDUSTRY
Mining HEADQUARTERS
Luoyang, China FOUNDED
1965 EMPLOYEES
+10,000 REVENUE
$2 Billion PRODUCTS/ SERVICES CITIC Heavy Industries Company Ltd (CITIC HIC) began in 1956 under the name of Luoyang Mining Machinery Plant, in Luoyang China. In 1993 it was merged into the CITIC Group to become CITIC Heavy Machinery Company Ltd. CITIC HIC was one of 156 “Important Projects” initiated under the Chinese Governments first “Five Year Plan”. Now more than half a century later, CITIC HIC has become the largest mining machinery manufacturer and one of the largest heavy machinery manufacturers in China.
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BMD Group: Award-Winning Service in Infrastructure
With dedicated staff, BMD Group has been ab new heights in the infrastructure industry in A Written by: Laura Close Produced by: James Hayes
ble to achieve Australia 135
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BMD Group began as an urban development company in Brisbane, Queensland in 1979. The company’s head office remains there, but the business has expanded in both location and services offered. With a full presence in each capital city and state and several smaller regional offices particularly in Queensland and New South Wales, BMD Group has garnered the title of a national business in Australia. BMD Group has experience in a range of infrastructure industries, 136
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including transport, mining, ports, airports and highways. However, they’ve still maintained their rich history in urban development. Their award-winning service and current high-profile projects are supported by its engaged and valued staff, which BMD Group considers its greatest asset. Award-Winning Service BMD Group has won several awards recently. Its standout award is for its work on the third expansion of
MINING
the Hay Point Coal Terminal, which was originally build in the 1980s and is owned by the BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Alliance, BMA. BMD was originally award a $49 million project for the reclamation contract, which included civil work for the expansion of the coal terminal footprint area. There were 10.2 hectares of land to reclaim; the work also included developing an on-site quarry, involving excavation, processing and hauling 1.3 million tonnes of engineered fill material.
The company was then awarded an additional $125 million of additional scope. This included onshore civil works and general services contracts which involved concrete foundations, underground services, site facilities, maintenance and management. BMD Group was able to deliver the project in three years with 650,000 hours losttime injury (LTI) free with 81 percent of the workforce on the Hay Point Coal Terminal expansion project being local. The award—the Queensland Mining Contractors Award for w w w. b m d . c o m . a u
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“BMD Constructions delivered the project successfully in a challenging physical environment and coped admirably with complex regulations which showed a critical understanding of risk, and the importance of excellent project management.�
BMD GROUP Time-Saving Initiative—was for the construction of a temporary wharf through which the company unloaded preassembled modules coming on a barge from China. One judge for the award commented that “BMD Constructions delivered the project successfully in a challenging physical environment and coped admirably with complex regulations which showed a critical understanding of risk, and the importance of excellent project management.” BMD Group has also won several other awards this year, including: - The Young Professional Engineer of the year, Michael Vollbon; Project Infrastructure Over $50 million, Cairns Connect; and Environment, New Parallel Runway, Phase 1 Works at the Engineers Australia Queensland Awards for Excellence - The Civil Contractor’s Federation Earth Award for the Cairns Bruce Highway Upgrade for projects valued at more than $75 million - The Civil Contractor’s Federation (QLD) Industry Leaders and Training Awards
MINING
for outstanding Commitment to Training and Skill Development - The International Road Federation Awards, awarded through Transcity Joint Venture for Environmental Mitigation - Indigenous Apprentice of the Year, Mature Age Achiever and First Year Apprentice of the Year Awards from Civil Contractor’s Federation (NT) Industry Leaders and Training Awards - And the Construction Skills Training Centre Award for Employee of the Year and Trainee of the Year Current Projects BMD Group is currently undertaking a range of projects across Australia, one of which is the Grosvenor project in Queensland. The company finished its first contract on the Grosvenor project, the Pioneering Roadworks and Boxcut Excavation for the drifts, in April of 2013. A further contract for the site started in September this year and includes 8,000m3 of structural concrete consisting of extensions to the existing coal wash plant, extension to the existing train load out tunnel, footings for new w w w. b m d . c o m . a u
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BMD GROUP
conveyors and transfer towers and rail foundations for a new stacker and reclaimer. It also includes, minor road and drainage works, 80,000m3 of earthworks consisting of a new product coal stockpile pad and a new High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) lined water storage dam will also be constructed. Both projects were awarded for approximately $30 million. The approximate completion date on the second Grosvenor project is early 2015. BMD has also won a number of other major projects recently across the other States, including 140
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the award of the Tiger Brennan Drive contract in Northern Territory. Empowering Employees BMD Group values its employees, acknowledging they are a pivotal part of the business. “We understand the valuable role staff play in our success, so much so, on the number plates of our vehicles, we’ve got a motto: our business is our people,” said Colin Mitchell, General Manager – Strategic Market Development. “We certainly invest a significant amount of time and money into training and developing our people.
MINING
Our investment in people is a large part of the continuous improvement of the company.” The company has several key initiatives to assist employee development, including a graduate development scheme, with a number of the participants going on to become Senior Managers at BMD. There is also the 20 Year Club comprising members who have worked for the company for 20 or more years as well as a leadership development program. BMD Group also encourages good health through health initiatives and participation in sporting teams, and rewards their long-term employees for their service.
Company Information INDUSTRY
Mining HEADQUARTERS
Queensland, Australia FOUNDED
1979 EMPLOYEES
Striving To Be A Partner Of Choice For the future, BMD Group wants to continue developing its management systems to make sure they remain robust and exceed the industry’s legislative requirements. Developing a team of empowered, capable staff—who, most importantly, are happy—is also high on the company’s list. And although their diversification strategies have already taken them into several different industries, BMD Group is looking to have a further penetration into the oil and gas sector, the defence sector and asset maintenance sector. “We always want to be held in high regard throughout the construction industry, and really recognised as a partner of choice,” said Mitchell. “So our goals for the future align with ensuring we are always top of mind for our clients and potential clients.”
1700 REVENUE
$1 Billion PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
BMD Group began urban development construction in Brisbane in 1979. Since then, the company has grown consistently, with offices in every capital city in Australia. The company has also diversified its offerings, moving into infrastructure for transport, mining, ports, railways, airports, defence, oil and gas and more in the construction industry.
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Innovative Fluid Syste Innovative Fluid Systems: S To Be Number One With its tech improvements and hard-working employees, Systems is on its way to the top of its industry. Written by: Laura Close Produced by: Wayne Masciotro
ems: Striving Innovative Fluid
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I N N O VAT I V E F L U I D S Y S T E M S
Our systems offer the most effective way to dry cuttings into stackable discharge!
One thing that stands out about Innovative Fluid Systems is the company’s strive to be number one. As the company, a specialty provider of solids and liquids separation service works towards this goal—which is only a few years off, says Russell Condon, general manager—the company continues to acquire new technology that is geared towards the separation of high tepidity fluid. A chemical engineer is currently consulting with Innovative Fluid Systems. Once the data from his analysis is complete, the company will develop the equipment. 144
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Australian Made Since its foundation in 2007, the company has moved towards a 90 percent Australian-made strategy on its equipment. The distance and timeframe of flying equipment in and out of other countries was not cost effective, and Innovative Fluid needed to find another solution. With its high certification requirements, the company was also facing a quality control problem. “The only way we could achieve these certifications without basing an employee overseas was to actually bring it back into our workshop where we could
ENERGY
control it here,” said Condon. “Our clients expect the highest quality out of us, and to provide that high quality something had to change. By engineering a majority of our equipment—90 percent of it—here, we can guarantee that high quality.” The other 10 percent of materials are made in other countries like the Netherlands that also requires a high certification process on manufacturing and equipment, helping the company keep their equipment quality promise to their customers. “There are some components we will not change. Even if we did, it would take us five or six years of development and program to get a reliable system again, and we want to provide for our customers now, not five years down the road,” said Condon. High Employee Expectations To produce the high-quality equipment, Innovative Fluid has high expectations for their employees. One of the ways the company keeps their workplace fresh and consistently learning is by bringing in a couple apprentices at a time from the local community. Key members
of the team train the apprentices on the company’s standards and expectations. The apprentices learn valuable skills, and the members of the staff doing the training also get a lot of out the experience. Currently, there are two apprentices on the team, working under a boiler maker and a fitter. Perhaps the best learning opportunity Innovative Fluid Systems employees experience is the chance to go out into the field and see how the machinery and equipment functions in its reallife applications. The field-based training for different oil and gas rigs gives the workers a unique view into the performance of their equipment, and the chance to see if there are any improvements or changes they can make in their process to improve its performance. Zero-Liquid discharge projects One of Innovative Fluid’ biggest assets is its machinery that works on the zero-liquid discharge projects. A closed loop system in the equipment keeps the drilling mud from ever reaching the ground. As the mud comes out of the drill
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Prime Engineering is a precision machining, mechanical engineering and fabrication workshop based in Richland’s Brisbane since 1988. For more than 26 years, we have been delivering excellence in metal working.
465 Boundary Road, Richlands, Brisbane QLD 4077 Email: sales@primeeng.com.au
rig, the machine cleans it, stores it, and transfers it back to the pump— everything is recycled through. “Some other companies can do this, but those companies use a product that actually removes the drilling components—the drilling additives. Our systems leave the drilling additives in there, allowing our machinery to operate for a lower cost for the drilling companies,” said Condon. Condon also personally provides a service where he attends the oil and gas worksites and watches 146
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Ph: 07 3217 0555 • Fax: 07 3217 0333
www.primeengineering.com.au
Innovative Fluid Systems equipment work. From there he speaks with the clients to make sure the company is doing as much as possible to ensure success at the site. “If there is a change that needs to be made, our team goes back and take the feedback in-house and we hold a meeting. From there, and if necessary, we redevelop something to suit the client’s needs. We have a baseline procedure then we finetune the rest of it with the customer to deliver the custom experience.”
I N N O VAT I V E F L U I D S Y S T E M S
“By engineering a majority of our equipment—90 percent of it—here, we can guarantee that high quality,”
ENERGY
Company Information INDUSTRY
Energy
– Condon HEADQUARTERS
Current Projects Innovative Fluid’ current projects are based on remediation. “We believe remediation is going to be the future here in Australia: the remediation of ponds, dredging, mining ponds where fluid are being discharged and stored, and something has to be done with it. The technology is slowly catching up to where we can actually process that stuff now, where we’ve never had that before in Australia. We’re hoping that’s the direction the company will go in,” shared Condon. Currently, their technology is top notch. Innovative Fluid delivers the driest cut with their equipment. According to Condon, no other company can provide a discharge of shakers as dry as they do. This benefits everyone on each side of the equipment, and is one of the many factors that will continue to contribute to Innovative Fluid journey to number one in its industry.
Stapylton Queensland, Australia FOUNDED
2007 EMPLOYEES
10 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Xnnovative Fluid Systems is a specialty provider of solids and liquids separation service, and provides equipment rentals for use in all sized projects. Innovative Fluid Systems Pty Ltd handles a large range of environmental issues dealing with liquid separation technology and offer a wide range of services and equipment to suit all types of drilling, as well as mud cleaning systems for dredging operations.
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Sigra:
Rock Solid Services
Sigra’s broad and deep experience allow complex challenges in the geological ser be quite successful. Written by: Kevin Smead
s
ws it to take on unique and vices industry—and
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SIGRA
Sigra is involved with all matters pertaining to the ground. From mining to groundwater, the company’s experience is both broad and deep. Using this extensive experience, Sigra “invents solutions” using its unique integrated approach. 150
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A Brief History Sigra was founded in 1994 in Brisbane, Australia, by Dr. Ian Grey. In its early days, the company supported the mining industry in a consulting role, as well as through research and development as part of the Australian Coal Industry Research Program.
ENERGY
Along with its work on some other projects, Sigra built up its own technologies, which was vital to the economic success of the company. In 1996, the company developed its overcore stress measurement system (IST), which allowed for HQ coring at depths of 2000 m.
The company undertook further innovations, eventually working on field measurement projects. This led to the evolution of the tectonic strain theory that explained the varying stresses measured through sedimentary strata. Now, this process has been nearly universally sigra.com.au
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adopted by the mining industry. The company was even able to weather the coal recession in 2000 and come out on top. Sigra became a major force in the burgeoning coal seam gas industry. “Underpinned by the original work on the subject by Dr Ian Gray in the early 1980s, Sigra has developed its stress path analysis to determine how the effective stresses in coal seams and other adsorbative reservoirs change with the removal of fluids; in this case, water and
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gas, where the latter leads to shrinkage of the coal,” the company writes. “This is important because the permeability of coals is very dependent on the effective stress that they are subject to.” Sigra has continued to work with stresses in the coal and surrounding rocks—work that requires extensive knowledge and experience. “In 2012 Sigra built, tested and proved its Gas Content Without Coring System (GCWC),” the company explains. “This enables
SIGRA
ENERGY
the gas content of strata to be determined while drilling an open hole under overbalanced conditions. This is a very important development as it is provides a means for determining the gas content of virtually all rocks that are not vuggy or hugely over pressured. It has been proven in coal bearing formations.” Sigra’s talents are not just available to Australia, either. The company is always prepared to do international work.
“Only by this broader perspective can the organisation progress through its expanding knowledge base,” Sigra writes. “We therefore have a commitment to continuing education within the organisation. We often find this approach means that we educate our clients, and the industries they represent, as well.” Having a team with diverse backgrounds is also very important to Sigra, as they believe it leads to more varied and intelligent solutions to problems. This also extends to Sigra’s commitment to cultural Guided by Principles diversity within its workforce, While Sigra’s scope of work is allowing for different perspectives extensive, it applies the same guiding on projects. principles to everything it does. At the end of the day, though, it all “Sigra’s guiding principle is to comes back to the balance between provide the best solutions possible science and art. to its clients,” the company writes. “Understanding the geology is the “This means that the solution must key to providing a solution to matters be feasible, sustainable, appropriate related to the ground,” the company and economically sound, within the explains. “Devising solutions to context of the best environmental engineering problems is an art form and health and safety objectives.” to which there are many possible The company works to provide its solutions. Finding the solution that staff with a greater understanding of works best depends on the skill of company operations, which allows the engineers and the palette of them better contextualize their work tools they have at their disposal. At and provide more effective service. Sigra we endeavor to provide the sigra.com.au
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SIGRA
“The compan variety of prob areas of a pro
broadest palette of engineering techniques possible, and one that is not restricted by current fashions of industry.” All of these factors lead to a more innovative team and allow Sigra to excel in all areas. Total Solutions And innovate Sigra has. The 154
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company offers total solutions to a wide variety of problems and is able to tackle specific areas of a problem if need be. Still, the company knows how challenging the work can be at times. “The complexity of coal s eams and their reservoir behavior is self evident,” Sigra explains. “The extraction of coal and gas requires
ENERGY
Company Information
ny offers total solutions to a wide blems and is able to tackle specific oblem if need be.”
INDUSTRY
Energy HEADQUARTERS
Acacia Ridge, Queensland Australia FOUNDED
1994 PRODUCTS/
multi-disciplined engineering skills and expertise. Sigra excels at optimization of exploration and appraisal programs for the development of coal and gas resources and the design of their extraction.” This approach allows employees to think outside the box and provide the best service and engineering skills possible. For Sigra, innovation and forward-thinking isn’t something special: it’s what they do every day.
SERVICES Sigra delivers solutions to our clients in all matters related to the ground. We understand what we are dealing with, and we have the capability to examine and analyse it in detail. To do this we have a multidisciplinary team and a lot of the “geo” built into the names of what we do: Geology, geophysics, geomechanics, geotechnical, hydrogeology. Associated fields include: reservoir characterisation, rock mechanics, drilling. To do this work requires major capability in other areas, such as all the engineering disciplines: chemical, civil, electronic, mechanical, mining and software. We also have high level of mathematical skills.
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New Zealand Diving and Salvage: New Zealand Divingand Salvage Goes to Great Depths to Reach New Heights
New Zealand Diving and Salvage builds on its over 30 yea operations, strengthening alliances, expanding its capab and bringing more business to New Zealand.
Written by: Andrew Rossillo Produced by: Wayne Masciotro
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N E W Z E A L A N D D I V I N G A N D S A LVA G E
Welding installation of anode brackets to subsea structure.
Established in 1982, New Zealand Diving and Salvage Ltd (NZDS) have developed the reputation as a preeminent provider of innovative solutions and service excellence for offshore, inland water systems and the marine industry throughout New Zealand and the Pacific. NZDS has the ability to provide rapid response ability with a service range from project scoping to the design, construction and management of large-scale marine engineering projects. “The company’s been up and 158
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running for over 30 years,” says NZDS General Manager Sol Fergus. “There’s no other marine contractor in New Zealand that’s been going for that long. The experience and infrastructure that we’ve developed over that time, including the plant and equipment that we hold, is unique to our company and provides a point of difference.” Accreditation Secures International Clientele Another significant element that
ENERGY
helps set NZDS apart from their competition is the demanding accreditation they’ve achieved. “From a commercial diving perspective, we are the only diving contractor in New Zealand to holds ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 accreditation,” says Fergus. Fergus pointed out “For us to be competitive and meet client requirements, particularly international clients, it’s essentially imperative that we have accredited management systems”. “Looking at the international players, such as the oil and gas operators here in New Zealand, most of those companies are involved with major offshore corporations, which have large compliance rules and regulations, and if you don’t offer the complete package including service credibility with accredited systems then it is likely that you may not be considered”. “Those two particular ones [ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001] from a health, safety and quality standing are essentially a musthave in my view as they represent a commitment to the delivery of safe quality service assurance. When
you have a company like ours, with an employment staff of upwards of 20 full-time marine contractors, administrative and management, we’ve got to be competitive and have all the right things in place to secure the necessary volume of work,” says Fergus. “It’s also about improving the company’s own internal systems.” Competitive Advantages and Strategic Alliances The range of services that NZDS has undertaken and the innovation and methodologies that they’ve come up with over the years have not only had large cost-saving implications for their clients but have also enabled the company to be successful with every undertaking they’ve performed; from salvage to biosecurity responses to patented geotech investigation tooling. “The knowledge that we have internally in terms of the marine coastal area around New Zealand and certain parts of the South Pacific, I don’t believe anyone else in New Zealand has that from a business perspective,” says Fergus. To capitalise on that experience w w w. n z d s . c o . n z
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N E W Z E A L A N D D I V I N G A N D S A LVA G E and optimise the scope of operations and number of projects NZDS has the opportunity to get involved with, the Company has formed alliances with two other international commercial dive companies; Subsea Global Solutions and Cal Dive (Australia). “Thus increasing our service capability and offer with access to an extended range of capabilities, plant and personnel”. This arrangement also utilizes the capabilities and local experience of NZDS with its infrastructure,
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suppliers and knowledge of the local clients. Multi-role Vessels for Diving and ROV Support Guardian Offshore New Zealand is a subsidiary of NZDS that was formed with the focus of offering new build multi-role vessels to the New Zealand market. “A recent example was the securement and operation of the 2014 NZ new build Guru which was we utilized for several hydrographical, geophysical and geotechnical projects”. This multi-role support range will include diving, ROV, oil field support, inclusive of off-take chase vessels. “Many of the international companies would now like the vessels they utilise for their projects to be less than 10 years old,” explains Fergus. “They would also like these vessels to have multi-role capabilities. While there are a lot of such vessels internationally, there’s a large mobilisation cost involved to bring them to New Zealand for a short period.” NZDS expects that having multi-role vessels based in New Zealand will help bridge that gap. There isn’t always a guarantee
ENERGY
that there will be work or projects that will require certain vessels or infrastructure elements that the Company attains or develops. Nevertheless, Fergus explains that part of the Company’s growth plan involves anticipating what the market will do and need. “There aren’t always guarantees for the substantial investments that we make, but these are things we commit to in order to make sure we’re ready to go operational when needed,” says Fergus. Maintaining High Quality and Safety Standards From a quality standpoint, the Company has maintained in-water survey approval for six of the major class societies and has maintained those approvals for over 25 years. “We were perhaps one of the first companies in New Zealand to pioneer these. To have maintained those approvals for more than 25 years is a great achievement that we’re quite proud of,” says Fergus. “We also have an excellent safety record. For more than 25 years, all of our operations have been prime-injury free.” Moving forward, New Zealand Diving and Salvage is constantly looking forward and exploring options to provide service excellence across a range of marine activities. We have internal continuous improvement drivers that ensure safety and quality are at the forefront of our processes.
Company Information INDUSTRY
Energy HEADQUARTERS
Lower Hutt, New Zealand FOUNDED
1982 EMPLOYEES
50+ REVENUE
Not Disclosed PRODUCTS/ SERVICES New Zealand Diving and Salvage has been in operation for over 30 years and has evolved over the years from primarily providing underwater vessel surveying and occasionally some particularly challenging salvage work, to more specialised geotechnical investigation and marine construction. The Company is the longest running marine contractor in New Zealand. The experience and infrastructure that they’ve developed over that time, including the plant and equipment that they hold, is unique to the company and sets them apart from their competitors.
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Buildcorp Interiors:
A Builder with Pride
Never a need to sacrifice quality to meet pro Written by: Ian Hanner Produced by: Bryan Giles
ogramme 163
BUILDCORP INTERIORS
The façade of the bar at Fat Noodle takes the form of an ancient paper scroll and is set against a basket-weave parquetry floor.
With an array of awards and stunning completed projects to point to, Buildcorp Interiors is setting the bar high for the fitout and refurbishment industry in eastern Australia. Buildcorp was founded in 1990 by Tony Sukkar with the goal to bring quality, passion-driven craftsmanship to the Australian construction market. Since that time, the company has evolved to be made up of four key divisions: 164
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Buildcorp Contracting, Buildcorp Interiors, Buildcorp Asset Solutions and Euroline. With each division focusing on a specific sector within construction, fit-out and refurbishment projects both large and small fall to Buildcorp Interiors. “Buildcorp Interiors came out of the construction business originally because there came a need in Australia to have specialized fitout and refurbishment companies,” said Ian Morrison, Queensland state
CONSTRUCTION
manager for Buildcorp Interiors. “That was in 1996 and it’s grown every year since, [up to] today where we’re turning over an excess of $150 million a year in just interiors alone.” With over 24 years of experience in the industry, Morrison would be at home in nearly any construction company. Speaking to him gives you the impression that he, and moreover the whole company, takes an immense amount of pride in the projects Buildcorp completes. “Construction’s a tough industry, but the way that Tony [Sukkar] has run his company and the values that he has align perfectly with how I like to operate, so it’s a perfect match,” Morrison said. Since construction is such a competitive industry, Buildcorp Interiors sets itself apart with its
wide range of service offerings. The company is able to handle nearly every step along the process of delivering quality craftsmanship including design and construction solutions, procurement management, integration management, time management, site management and even a sustainable construction process that helps projects hit a sustainable, environmental goal. With the expertise that Buildcorp brings to the job site, every project is seen through to an on-time, if not early, completion with a final product that brings pride to the whole team. In fact, whether or not the company’s employees find pride in their work is a major concern for Buildcorp, which regularly circulates employee satisfaction
“Buildcorp Interiors came out of the construction business originally because there came a need in Australia to have specialized fitout and refurbishment companies…it’s grown every year since.” – Ian Morrison; State Manager, Queensland
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questionnaires that probe for areas where management could improve, according to Sue Turpie, business development manager for Buildcorp Interiors in Queensland and New South Wales. “It’s recognized that we’re an employer that people stay with. It’s very rare to find a company that has [employees] for 20 years, but we’re reaching a time where nearly every year we have people receiving 20year awards,” Turpie said. “We’re very focused on our staff,”
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Morrison added. “I think if you spoke to the owner of our company, he would be very proud of the fact that he sees this as a family company. And that helps; it comes from the top.” Buildcorp Interiors doesn’t restrict that community-oriented mindset to just employees. It regularly raises money for various charitable causes through the Buildcorp Charitable Fund. According to Turpie, this year the company will be donating money raised to combating suicide among
BUILDCORP INTERIORS
CONSTRUCTION
young men in the construction industry. The company also regularly supports rugby teams from the Universities of Queensland and Sydney. Buildcorp’s support of the rugby team at the University of Queensland isn’t the only business the company has with the school. Buildcorp Interiors was recently awarded a Master Builders Award for the work it did on the school’s Goddard building. “It was a very difficult job,” Morrison said. “Not the least because it’s a heritage building and a fully operational building and we had to put in a rooftop extension.” Buildcorp Interiors inherited the job after a previous company dropped out, having already initiated numerous project elements with poor foresight. These often conflicting building elements complicated the remainder of the work for Buildcorp. Despite these complications, the company was able to complete the rooftop extension on-schedule in February with a total contract sum of about $10.5 million. “It was a challenging project in every way,” Morrison said. “And as always on challenging projects, when you can pull off a success and exceed people’s expectations, it’s just so rewarding. So it’s another one of those projects that we’re just proud of. Even when the company gets together for regular catch-ups over a few drinks, those kinds of projects are always on everyone’s lips.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Construction HEADQUARTERS
South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia FOUNDED
1990 EMPLOYEES
250 REVENUE
$150 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Since 1990, the Buildcorp Group has expanded to include four business units, each with its own specialization, bringing diversity, knowledge and stability to their business model. Each division has the capacity to independently deliver projects within its area of specialization, while drawing on centralized group support systems and services, including quality, support and management frameworks.
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Cooke & Dowset
Cooke & Dowsett: The Future Strength in Plumbing
From fathers to sons, Cooke & Dowsett has evolved plumbing industry through an experienced crew and Written by: Stephanie C. Ocano Produced by: Bryan Giles
tt :
e and
into a recognized force in the d impressive project portfolio
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COOKE & DOWSETT
Bendigo Hospital Progress (image courtesy of Bendigo Health webcam)
Chadd Cooke and Scott Dowsett shared similar interests, similar upbringings, and up into their early business days, similar apprenticeships. Their fathers began a company named Cooke & Dowsett in 1970 Scott left the family business in 1992 to start his own business and Chadd stayed within the family business up until July 2007 when he left and went across to Scott to form again the name Cooke & Dowsett in 2008 of which was the company name their fathers started in the early 70s,” said Chadd Cooke, Director of Cooke & Dowsett. “I guess you 170
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could call this evolution.” Evolution would be the ideal word to describe this transition because since the restructure Cooke & Dowsett has completed numerous prestigious and innovative projects both on the East and West Coast of Australia. With works being completed on projects in every state, Cooke & Dowsett is the only recognized national plumbing organization currently in the marketplace. Most recently, the company was awarded the recognition of “Commercial Plumber of the Year 2013/2014” at the Association of
CONSTRUCTION
Darwin Airport Qantas Club Lounge
Hydraulics Services Consultants. “It’s recognition from our peers that we are doing something right out there amongst the industry,” commented Cooke. Trusted Ties When it comes to its workforce, Cooke & Dowsett takes a unique approach to ensuring its employees are well cared for. “The company is built on trust,” said Cooke. “There are a lot of employees that started with us back in 1992 that are still with us today. Our first ever apprentice is now one of our Senior Estimators within the
business. These are now the type of employees that we entrust to carry our culture into other states and help us manage our business nationally.” Cooke & Dowsett is also partnered with NUDJ Plumbing – an Indigenous Apprentices Program where aboriginal youth learn and gain plumbing trade qualifications. Dedicated to enriching the lives of aboriginal people through plumbing apprenticeship programs, apprentices can expect to find employment with NUDJ and the provision of labor hire through Cooke & Dowsett. “NUDJ plumbing is very close to
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Our expertise. Your needs.
At Rinnai, we design, test and manufacture innovative commercial hot water products that can be developed to suit your specific needs. Our state-of-the-art facility allows us to work quickly and efficiently, meeting your requirements with quality control that’s unsurpassed. - Our team of highly qualified technical engineers, along with local sales managers, are specifically trained to quickly determine the most cost effective solution to meet your objectives. - Our products, such as stainless steel tanks, collectors, frames, dual pump kits and flueing are manufactured in our South Australian facility. - Condensing technology with a thermal efficiency of 94% and /or solar thermal technology are all designed to significantly reduce the energy costs of heating water. - Sophisticated controllers are available with LCD displays and BMS fault outputs to enable easy management of your water heating plant.
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COOKE & DOWSETT
CONSTRUCTION
both [Scott and Chadd] hearts and they are both very passionate about it. It’s about giving something back to indigenous Australia,” said Cooke. “NUDJ is a non-for-profit company that takes indigenous kids, both male and female, from the outback and brings them to Melbourne and trains them over a four year period and then after this four year period they have the opportunity if they wish to return home and continue their employment with NUDJ as a fully qualified plumber.” “Cooke & Dowsett were recently award by BRW Momentum Best Mid Market Leader for training the first
SUPPLIER PROFILE
ever Indigenous Female Plumber in Australia who is still currently working for NUDJ,” added Cooke. A Diverse Portfolio Thinking laterally, Cooke & Dowsett aims to deliver cost effective plumbing solutions to meet clients’ needs. Currently, Cooke & Dowsett is working on three major projects: The Bendigo Hospital, New Monash Children’s Hospital, and the Post Entry Quarantine Facility. Bendigo Hospital is the largest project Cooke & Dowsett has ever undertaken and will result in the state of Victoria’s largest regional
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Industry: Sustainable commercial space heating and centralised hot water systems Services: Manufacture of purpose built commercial hot water systems offering reductions in energy usage. Installation and preventative maintenance via 1st Care. Ongoing Projects: Newcastle University – NSW, City West Police Complex – VIC, Thursday Island Hostel – QLD, South District Hospital – SA, BGC concrete tilt – WA, Quest Apartments Melbourne airport - VIC Management: Greg Ellis, Managing Director Richard Ford, National Commercial Manager Website: www.rinnai.com.au w w w. c o o k e d o w s e t t . c o m . a u
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Cooke & Dowsett Directors - Chadd Cooke & Scott Dowsett
hospital – a world class, stateof-the-art facility providing high quality health care for the greater Bendigo community. “We would like to think after four years of hard work we delivered a successful project for not only our client but the community of Bendigo,” said Cooke. The New Monash Children’s Hospital project is one of the biggest capital infrastructure projects underway to date for Monash Health. The hospital is one of only two tertiary pediatric 174
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facilities for Victorian children and their families as well as being the only location in Victoria which provides fetal surgery, thalassemia and pediatric care electro-physiology. The completed hospital will include more beds and services including 96 in-patient acute beds, 10 pediatric intensive care beds, 3 operating theaters, outpatient consulting rooms and allied health therapy spaces. “The New Monash Children’s Hospital is great to be involved in.” said Cooke. “It’s another
CONSTRUCTION
high profile project for Cooke & Dowsett and great to give something to the kids when it’s completed.” Cooke & Dowsett also additionally completed the New Box Hill Hospital Redevelopment project – a $447.5 million project – turning it into a contemporary and technologically advanced health care facility for those living in the eastern region of Melbourne. “Not limited to the projects above but all our projects we undertake we would like to think give us some recognition within the industry of being a quality company with great service and one that can deliver on time and on budget,” summarized Cooke. Looking Ahead Cooke & Dowsett is always looking for opportunities that enable growth. “If [opportunities] present themselves and we are at the forefront, then we will take them,” said Cooke. Looking towards the new year, Cooke & Dowsett feels confident about their position in the industry. “I think the company heading into 2015 is in a strong position considering the market is quiet and margins are at an all time low,” said Cooke. “We just need to stay focused on what we do best and push through the tough times and hopefully come out the other end unscathed.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Construction HEADQUARTERS
Keilor Park, Australia FOUNDED
1992 EMPLOYEES
200-500 REVENUE
$200 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Cooke & Dowsett are a National Tier 1 Commercial Plumbing Company based in Melbourne, Victoria, with offices also located in South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, and also operating in Tasmania and Northern Territory.
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TAG Oil:
Canadian Owned,N
Merging the best of Northern and South Written by: Ian Hanner Produced by: Wayne Masciotro
New Zealand Run
hern Hemisphere exploration 177
TA G O I L
Aerial view of 2013’s Ngapaeruru exploration.
BY BLENDING PRODUCTION styles from Canada and New Zealand, TAG Oil has managed to find a sweet spot for operations in the Southern Hemisphere. TAG Oil was founded in Canada in 2002 by Alex Guidi with the express purpose of exploration in New Zealand. While trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company invests nearly 100 percent of their capital in the development of projects in their host country. Though a relatively small company in the world of oil production, Chief Operating Officer Drew Cadenhead says the company has no problem 178
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competing in their niche market. “We are the most active explorer in New Zealand and have had good exploration success over the last few years,” Cadenhead said. “A very strong financial position [has us] positioned well for future growth into the next few years.” Cadenhead’s optimism is not without merit. TAG Oil has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. TAG Oil was “relatively inactive” for the first seven years of its existence, according to Cadenhead, who used to be the Chief Executive Officer. “We were just JV partners with
E X P L O R AT I O N W O R L D
Hydrocarbon storage tank at TAG Oil’s Sidewinder Field
some other companies, so once we took control of things ourselves and we were getting much more active operationally, I switched from CEO to COO,” he said. “I relocated myself and my family back to New Zealand to run all of our operations here. Our CFO at the time, Garth Johnson, took over the role of CEO up in Vancouver.”
Cadenhead’s expertise comes from several decades of experience working for various exploration companies in both Canada and New Zealand. He also holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Geology from the University of Calgary. Now tasked with the direction of TAG Oil’s operations in New Zealand, he’s putting his skills to work.
“It is something that’s very important to us: our perception as a good corporate citizen; as a very safety and healthoriented company. Our record is impeccable here and it’s very important for us to maintain that record.” w w w. t a g o i l . c o m / d e f a u l t . a s p
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SUPPLIER SUPPLIER PROFILE PROFILE
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E X P L O R AT I O N W O R L D
“Our niche here in New Zealand is to run our company as a small nimble junior company-- sort of like a Canadian model, not surprisingly,” he said. “What we found was that there were a number of Majors down here, [such as] Shell and some of the big Australian companies, mainly focusing offshore. No one was really focusing on-shore where there’s some really nice oil. In particular, shallow oil plays, so really kind of up our alley as far as what we were familiar with as Canadians working in Calgary.” One of TAG Oil’s strongest plays is in the Taranaki Basin. The only sedimentary basins in New Zealand to have been commercialized to date, the company has invested heavily in the region with three plants and a wholly-owned network of pipelines just east of the field. From there, everything ties into their mother facility, the Cheal plant. The drilling operations in that region produce between 2,300 and 2,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, securing a steady cash flow. According to Cadenhead, TAG Oil will be producing in that region for years to come having only drilled
roughly 25 percent of the company’s total acreage. “If we were to stop drilling here today, the oil would keep flowing for about another 10 to 15 years,” he said. “They’re nice long reserve life, index fields. They produce very well.” Speaking about new drilling operations in the region, he added, “These wells will cost us about $3 million to drill and complete and tie in and we’ll get a net present value out of these wells of somewhere between $10 to 30 million. It’s really a great little play for us.” The success of smaller scale, but very stable operations in shallow plays like these, has afforded the company the ability to develop higher risk operations. With reportedly zero debt and about $50 million in reserve, TAG Oil is looking to explore deeper targets in the region. According to Cadenhead, there are numerous reservoirs situated at depths of between 4,000 and 5,000 meters. With larger pool sizes, he estimates the value of each of these wells would be closer to $20 million. With stable cash flow from the
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TA G O I L
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E X P L O R AT I O N W O R L D
Taranaki Basin, the company has been able to turn its attention to other regions yet to be developed, such as the East Coast Basin. “[The East Coast Basin] clearly has a working hydrocarbon system,” Cadenhead said. “We know that because there’s 300 or 400 oil and gas seeps where oil and gas is actually gurgling out of the ground. So we know the kitchen is working there and we recognized that about five years ago and secured a very large land base-nearly 2 million acres.” He estimated it would take about three years to gather enough data and drill enough exploratory wells to prove commercial viability, but according to Cadenhead, several independent engineering assessments have indicated that the company is sitting atop reserves in the billions of barrels. “It just remains to be seen if it can be cracked,” he said. “We’re the only ones trying to crack it. It’s one of the main reasons the shareholders in TAG are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for a hit over there, as well as the good work that
we’re doing in the Taranaki Basin.” The small staff size at TAG makes the company’s successes thus far even more impressive. With only 25 employees in New Plymouth, TAG’s revenue for the 2014 fiscal year was just over $2.3 million per person. Over the last five years that the company has been growing, the staff has been hired on one-byone, with only two people leaving the company in that time span, according to Cadenhead. “We have a lot of fun here,” he said. “It’s a really loose atmosphere and because it’s such a small group, we don’t get bogged down in red tape and paper work. We just yell at each other down the hallway instead of sending memos around. We chat around the coffee pot. It really is a small family type of [operation] here.” As a foreign entity operating in another country, TAG Oil has to be extra careful about their perception as good for the community. With a very active role sponsoring both local academic and sporting organizations, the company tries to make it clear that they’re trying to give back to their host country.
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TA G O I L
The process isn’t easy though. Cadenhead pointed out that in recent year, the oil and gas industry has come under scrutiny from the public in a way that it hasn’t before. “It’s probably one of the biggest challenges for us, to tell you the truth, and one of the biggest risks is getting permission and consent to drill wells,” he said. “It’s something we put a lot of effort into and I can honestly say many, many more times the effort than we [put into it] just four or five years ago. It 186
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just wasn’t a consideration. It has become a consideration. And that’s not just here in New Zealand; that’s a global phenomenon.” He added, “It is something that’s very important to us: our perception as a good corporate citizen; as a very safety and health-oriented company. Our record is impeccable here and it’s very important for us to maintain that record.” The natural gas produced by the company doesn’t just benefit New Zealand by introducing jobs and
E X P L O R AT I O N W O R L D
taxable revenue. Since TAG Oil doesn’t own a facility to liquefy natural gas, all of the natural gas produced in the country is sold in New Zealand without the added costs accrued by shipping overseas. Meanwhile, the company’s crude oil is shipped to primarily Asian markets such as China, Japan and India, which require oils with very low sulfur content, and sold at a premium. From there the company imports cheaper oil back from the Middle East to refine into gasoline and diesel for use in New Zealand. “We’ve got the choice of either consuming that oil here or shipping it offshore,” Cadenhead said. “There’s an insatiable thirst for oil in the Southeast Asia part of the world. It’s a great place to find oil. It’s a great place to find high quality oil in particular. As I said, we’re netting back on our oil sales here probably close to $80 a barrel right now.” Cadenhead said he could see the company taking a number of paths in the decade to come. Most exciting would be proving commercial viability on their unconventional plays in the East Coast Basin. “If the unconventional play starts to work for us and we can have success with the proof of concept of being able to flow hydrocarbons from those multi-billion barrel reservoirs that we see over on the East Coast Basin, that’s a completely different ball game,” he said. “Most likely, TAG, at the size that we are, would get bought out by a Major at that point.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Oil and Gas HEADQUARTERS
Vancouver, Canada FOUNDED
2002 EMPLOYEES
25 REVENUE
$57,546,899 (2014) PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
TAG Oil is a Canadianowned exploration and production company for both oil and gas that operates exclusively in New Zealand. By merging the styles of both countries, the company has been able to solve problems no one else has, becoming the busiest explorer in New Zealand. With a small staff size, the company is able to stay highly-adaptive to an evolving energy market and act fast to capitalize on growth opportunities.
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Varley Group:
Defence & Aerospace Lea
As one of Newcastle’s oldest manufacturing companie the expertise and wide-ranging knowledge other comp Written by: Laura Close Produced by: Robert Lundberg
aders
es, Varley Group has panies do not.
VA R L E Y G R O U P
Varley’s automative capabilities include metal fabrication, machining, fusion welding, vehicle building, mechanical assembly.
As one of Newcastle’s oldest and most advanced engineering companies, Varley Group has provided its customers with innovative solutions and quality designs and products for over 125 years. The company has worked on projects in several different disciplines and industries including defence and aerospace, specialised 190
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vehicles, electric vehicles, power services, ship repair rail services and telescopic towers. Recently, in 2013, Varley Group acquired Telescopic Tower Enterprises in Queensland and BJM Electrical. Varley Group is committed to safety, in ensure the welfare of its people and visitors; customer focus, to offer the best customer
M A N U FA C T U R I N G
service through open and honest relationships; high quality workmanship, to ensure high-quality products, services and employees; acceptance of change, to adapt to changes in customer needs, technology and social demands; and success, to secure continuing financial, technical and market success. With locations in New South Wales, Sydney and Brisbane, the company has demonstrated its expertise on projects both large and small, earning a reputation for first class work locally, nationally and internationally. By providing quality customer service and a broad but specialised skill base, Varley Group has had the competitive edge in the region since its inception. Defence & Aerospace Varley Defence & Aerospace has been a recognised supplier of engineered military products since its establishment in the early 1980s. This division of the company has been responsible for the design and manufacture of a wide variety of land, air and sea products for military applications. For over 30 years Varley Defence & Aerospace
has been building up extensive knowledge and experience. The company is able to provide services ranging from conceptual design through to product manufacture and provide throughlife support. Several products are available from Varley Group’s defence and aerospace line: • Deployable shelters and enclosures integrated with tactical mission systems and logistics support equipment • Specialised trailers fitted with stabilising system and elevating platforms • Specialised vehicles bodies and modules • Specialised aircraft ground support equipment (GSE) • Customised storage and transportable containers • Marine gangways and accommodation ladders This particular arm of the company prides itself on its continuously improving service to customers— which includes both the Australian Defence Force and Defence industry alike—providing innovative, integrated and cost-effective solutions and continually factoring w w w. v a r l e y g r o u p . c o m
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VA R L E Y G R O U P lessons learnt into the company’s approach to new projects. Major Contracts & Manufacturing Skills In both prime and sub-contract arrangements, Varley Defence & Aerospace offers customers the benefits of knowledge, experience, flexibility, and highly skilled design and manufacturing teams supported by the full resources of the Varley Group of companies. Most significant contracts include: • Land121 Phases 3A & 5A
OVESCO Australia’s Leading Automotive and Industrial Hardware Supply and Logistics Company
ovesco.com.au
Vehicle Modules for new fleet of Army G-Wagons • RAAF Transportable Air Operations Tower (TAOT) Mobility Systems • Deployable Tyre Maintenance System (TMS) Shelters • F-35 JSF Landing Gear Handling Systems and Canopy Lifting Assemblies • AP-3C Orion Aircraft Docking Stations, and Mobile Work, Support and Access Platforms • Army Medium Maintenance
VA R L E Y G R O U P
M A N U FA C T U R I N G
Shelters • Assemblage Enclosures for Battlefield Telecommunications Network • RAAF Control, Command and Communications Shelters • Fit-out of MECC Expandable Shelters • Secure Office Shelters • Air Defence Vehicle Bodies These projects were supported by Varley Group’s expertise and highly developed skills in manufacturing. Below is a list of skills the company has mastered and can offer to its clients. • Metal Fabrication • Machining • CNC routing • Lightweight metal fabrication • Fusion Welding • Vehicle building • Mechanical Assembly • Fit-out (mechanical, electrical, data/video/ audio cabling) • Vehicle body/chassis building • Auto electrical 12V/24V • Electrical 240V/415V • Fibreglass and laminated panelling • Spray painting • Panel beating • Plumbing • Shipwright • Product maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade
Company Information INDUSTRY
Manufacturing HEADQUARTERS
New South Wales, Australia FOUNDED
1886 EMPLOYEES
650 REVENUE
$110 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES Varley is one of Newcastle’s oldest and most advanced engineering companies. We have consistently provided our customers with innovative solutions and quality in design and manufacture for 128 years. Varley’s work on projects large and small has earned the company a reputation; locally, nationally and internationally, as a supplier of first class work, a manufacturer of quality products and a provider of unsurpassed service.
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Rhino Water Tanks:
Water Storage Solutions for
Rhino Water Tanks provides products and services f rural and commercial customers. Written by: Laura Close Produced by: Wayne Masciotrio
r Australia
for domestic,
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R H I N O WAT E R TA N K S
Mt Thorley tanks in progress for Rio Tinto.
RHINO WATER TANKS is a privately owned and operated Australian company with over 20 years experience in the water storage industry. Currently Rhino Water Tanks is represented in all states and has a growing network of distributors and installers. Strategically the company is moving towards offering more options to contain various solutions, not just water. They are also looking at options to expand into more environmentallyorientated solutions and self196
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supporting systems for water, power and gas. Water Tank Specs These modular steel tanks range in size from 26,000 litres to over 2 million litres, and are available in Zincalume (a metallic coated sheet steel that offers two to four times the corrosion resistance of galvanised steel) or Colorbond (a product specifically made for Australian conditions and comes in a variety of colours). The whole tank and all of its components—including the Infinity
M A N U FA C T U R I N G
Rhino Water Tanks
tank liners—are manufactured in the company’s Western Australian factory. Rhino Tanks made this a priority for their company to be able to control the quality of every aspect of the tank manufacturing process. Infinity tank liner is a reinforced food-grade Metallocene coated liner that is UV treated and is suitable for exposed applications where a roof is not required. Products in Rhino Tanks’ line are approved for drinking water, as well as a range of other liquids including vegetable and animal oils, both high
and low pH water as well as sewerage, waste and recycled water. All of the wall sheets are corrugated and rolled for strength; roof trusses are hotdipped galvanised for durability. Continuous Improvement Rhino Water Tanks is a qualityendorsed company. All products are manufactured in the Western Australian factory under a quality management system certified to ISO 9001. Rhino’s quality management system aims to benchmark its w w w. r h i n o t a n k s . c o m . a u /
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“The domestic water tank market is still our main focus and we use this as a base to grow into the other areas when it suits. To be around in five years time in the challenging manufacturing industry the main key is to keep being smarter, innovative and economical with anything you do and that is our main focus.”
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Tremco Site Pump for Proglaze II, two component structural silicone.
Visit our website:
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products and services against the best in the world. The wellrecognised ‘Five-Ticks’ Standards Mark is proudly displayed to give customers the confidence that Rhino Water Tanks continually strives to provide cost effective, quality products and services that meet the customer’s individual needs and expectations. “Being an ISO 9001 accredited company, continuous improvement is what you strive for,” said Duane Crombie, CEO. “Furthermore, being a manufacturing business is always tough and gets tougher with every year due to rising expenses and materials and market pressure to make a sale that is mainly based around price and not quality and service.” The company has made key changes with their manufacturing systems, where Rhino has been able to increase productivity with the introduction of machines and robotics. Material usage and time management are the two main focuses to continual improvement and will continue to drive the business to better results.
M A N U FA C T U R I N G
A couple of Commercial Rhino Tanks completed for a warehouse in Canberra.
Domestic & Rural and Commercial Water Tanks Rhino Water Tanks provides products both for domestic and rural needs as well as for commercial sites. The company’s range of domestic and rural water tanks are specifically designed with the unique needs of the user in mind. The following features are included on each tank dedicated for domestic and rural customers: • Rhino Infinity Tank Liner • Bluescope Steel Corrugated Wall & Roof Sheets • Dust and Vermin Proofing Seal
• Tank Inlet • 20-year Warranty • Magnesium Anodes for Corrosion Protection • 50mm Scour Drain • Lockable Access Hatch • 100mm Bell Mouth Overflow There are also a range of optional features: • Additional Outlets and Valves • Fire Fighting Coupling • Rainsavers – Tank Roof Catchment System • Removable Internal/External Ladder • Additional Inlets w w w. r h i n o t a n k s . c o m . a u /
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Some fantastic photo’s of three Rhino Tanks installed in Rio Seco, Peru. 200
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M A N U FA C T U R I N G
• • •
Water Level Gauge Tank Roof Fascia Rhino Aqua Tub
Company Information
Global Operations The global expansion is through Rhino’s sister company called Rhinex. The main factor that drives this is the need for cost-efficient storage that can be exported and freighted efficiently and then create a large water storage solution that is constructed simply with basic tools and expertise. This will continue as the demand for clean drinking water grows around the world and the flexibility in establishing a water point in difficult area’s or terrain. Rhino Water Tanks now has two distributors in United Arab Emirates, and has recently started shipping tanks to Afghanistan through their Dubai Distributor Protech General Trading program. In 2011, the company opened a location in Port Moresby, the capital city and largest city in Papua New Guinea. “We see the business growing still but into areas where it suits our business needs and not spread ourselves too thin,” said Crombie. “The domestic water tank market is still our main focus and we use this as a base to grow into the other areas when it suits. To be around in five years time in the challenging manufacturing industry the main key is to keep being smarter, innovative and economical with anything you do and that is our main focus.”
INDUSTRY
Manufacturing HEADQUARTERS
Western Australia FOUNDED
1990 EMPLOYEES
100 REVENUE
$50 Million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Rhino Water Tanks provides several different water storage solutions for the wide range of customers in Australia. The tanks are Australian made, owned and operated, and are built with the strongest materials on the market for the highest quality.
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TH E
Pancake Parl Taking On Social Media
Pancake Parlour Marketing Manager Nico brand’s strengths in social media to conne Written by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Andrew Zhao
lour:
ole Jackson discusses the iconic Melbourne ect with employees and fans
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T H E PA N C A K E PA R L O U R
Fresh Strawberries
THE PANCAKE PARLOUR has been an iconic Australian restaurant institution for decades. Despite this legacy status, the company is committed as ever to staying fresh and up to date – it’s this dedication that has kept The Pancake Parlour at the forefront for the past fifty years, and will continue to carry it with 204
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consumers and employees alike well into the future. Building a Better Internal System “We’ve been around for fifty years, but we realized that it’s really important to stay relevant and move ahead with the times – especially when we have more than 600 employees mostly millennials,
FOOD
Scotch Fillet Steak
and all using technology,” says Nicole Jackson, Marketing and Communications Manager for The Pancake Parlour brand. “To really stay ahead and stay focused with them, we needed to implement something that was going to be suitable and able to talk to that generation.” For The Pancake Parlour that something is Sherpa Systems, an
integrated web-based program framework that forms the basis of the restaurant’s fully customized internal communications tool “The Mix”. “We did a lot of research on what companies were out there and what programs and what web-based systems were out in the marketplace, and we really formed an alliance with Sherpa
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We are manufacturers and distributors of Quality Australian Dairy Products and have been for over 75 years. We are a One Stop Dairy Shop with the ability to supply a full range of Quality Dairy Products to Industrial, Foodservice and Retail Customers.
One Stop Dairy Shop For Quality Dairy Products
Marsh Dairy Products Pty Ltd ABN: 25 005 086 288 Phone: 03 9689 3433 Fax: 03 9689 3422
86 Maribyrnong Street Footscray Victoria 3011, Australia Email: hamish@marshs.com.au
www.marshs.com.au
“Social media has become a digital form of traditional word of mouth advertising, and a picture tells a thousand words,�
T H E PA N C A K E PA R L O U R because we found that their vision and development of their system was on par with our vision for the company,” says Jackson. Set to roll out within the next couple of months, the company will be using “The Mix” as a complete employee management tool, ranging from recruitment training, rostering, payroll and task management to social communication between restaurants, managers, and employee teams. “Employees can access the tools they need from any device at any time, and they are in touch with the restaurant for all of their communication, rostering and workflow needs,” Jackson explains. “They can use it for swapping shifts, leave requests and staying in touch - it’s basically like a mini-Facebook group within the company with added management tools.” Award-Winning Social Media Expertise The Pancake Parlour is well familiar with Facebook. Using it is a cornerstone of the brand’s finely tuned social media strategy, executed fully in-house by the
FOOD
brand’s social media team with the goal of keeping fans naturally engaged in The Pancake Parlour experience on a daily basis. It’s a big job, requiring a full-time commitment from The Pancake Parlour’s marketing and social media team, but that hard work has paid off with more than 250,000 Facebook fans for the group and a recent award for Excellence in Social Media from the Australian Restaurant and Catering Association. “I think that our number one strategy is really just keeping our brand at top of mind for Facebook users,” says Jackson. “We appear daily in their newsfeed with all sorts of key messages that are relevant for the time – whether they are coming for breakfast, lunch, or supper – and the thing about our product is we have fantastic images we can use.” That wealth of images has gone a long way in helping The Pancake Parlour develop its social media strategy, which revolves mainly around image-based mediums such as Facebook and Instagram. “Social media has become a digital form of traditional word-
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T H E PA N C A K E PA R L O U R
The Short Stack
of-mouth advertising, and a picture tells a thousand words,” notes Jackson. “We could do a radio ad that talks for thirty seconds about our Lemon Berry Pancakes, or you can see a picture in an instant and know exactly what it looks like and you 208
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can almost know what it’s going to taste like just by looking at the photo. So mouthwatering images work really well. The minute we post a chocolate pancake with whipped cream and ice cream and strawberries our fans are totally engaging with us and
FOOD
sharing their experiences. So our strategy is really just about staying relevant to them.” The Pancake Parlour at Fifty The Pancake Parlour is at the precipice of a major milestone – fifty years in the restaurant business as of 2015. “With fifty years of history being a milestone, we’re launching a history book on the family business that will be coming out in 2015,” says Jackson. “It’s the story of how The Pancake Parlour has evolved, with a lot about the family behind the business as well.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Restaurant Group HEADQUARTERS
Melbourn Australia FOUNDED
1965 EMPLOYEES
Fifty More Years and Beyond Fifty years in business is an impressive feat for any business in any sector, especially in today’s global economy. But The Pancake Parlour isn’t just holding on to business – it’s thriving and growing, while remaining true to its roots. “We’re a bit of a Melbourne icon, and with our current CEO, Simon Meadmore, being the son of the original cofounders, it’s still very much a Melbourne family business,” says Jackson. “Fifty years is a great achievement, but we’re really making sure we’ve stayed relevant. We’re always looking at ways we can create new dishes, renovating for a new modern look, and building our strong social media presence to keep us more in tune with the current generation.” If its current efforts are any indication, The Pancake Parlour will continue to build its base and thrive for another fifty years to come.
600 REVENUE
Privately Held PRODUCTS/ SERVICES The Pancake Parlour is an Australian family-owned restaurant featuring ten restaurants in Victoria. Founded by Allen and Helen Trachsel and Roger Meadmore in 1965, The Pancake Parlour was created as a neighborhood restaurant for Melbourne residents to enjoy all-day pancakes and a friendly atmosphere. Today The Pancake Parlour continues to evolve for modern tastes, while retaining the quality food and family charm that made it a Melbourne icon.
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Anywhere Healthcare: Bringing healthcare toall of Australia
By enabling specialist healthcare via video consultations across the country, Anywhere Healthcare has made a name for itself in the future of healthcare. Written by: Laura Close Produced by: Jeff Soboleski
3
A N Y W H E R E H E A LT H C A R E Anywhere Healthcare, a subsidiary business of Medibank, is a health services organisation that provides a range of healthcare initiatives to the state and federal government and large corporate and non-profit companies. Because Anywhere Healthcare was developed in a governmentbacked environment, the organisation was not necessarily born out of a strong underlying business strategy. However, as innovators in their field, the Anywhere Healthcare team has worked to develop a model that is both scalable and sustainable. They have achieved the scale part of the equation, as the organisation now understands the dynamics of running a purely online medical practice. To make their operation sustainable, Anywhere Healthcare is looking to make the medical consultation process more efficient through a number of initiatives. Samuel Holt, director of online care, knows innovation is key: “The answer isn’t in just trying to replicate what happens in the face-to-face world, it is in looking 212
November 2014
at healthcare and streamlining care so that maybe it can be potentially faster and more efficient.” Video consultation technology The core of Anywhere Healthcare’s service is to enable patients to connect with a healthcare provider via video. To encourage regional doctors to connect their patients in rural or difficult-to-reach areas with city specialists, there are incentives and other government funding available under the Medicare system. The organisation employs cloudbased practice-management software, used by clinicians and practice management staff to store patient referrals, images and scans provided by their network of 1,000-plus referring practitioners across the country. Vidyo, a video conferencing platform, make the video consultations possible. Technology moves fast, so Anywhere Healthcare is always looking for new and better solutions to improve their services. Australia does not have ubiquitous access to one backbone of Internet, so Internet access
H E A LT H
can be relatively poor in less populated areas. The organisation is always looking for technology that can provide a more stable environment through which people can access consultations. Moving forward, Anywhere Healthcare is looking to provide patients with access to general practitioners and allied health
practitioners for consultations. These services will be offered at a 100 percent out-of-pocket fee, as there is currently no funding for an individual to talk to a general practitioner or allied health practitioner online. This service focuses specifically on convenience and accessibility for patients in rural and regional areas.
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A N Y W H E R E H E A LT H C A R E
H E A LT H
Anywhere Healthcare intends to use apps to provide additional and improved services to interested patients. Instead of making an appointment to see a specialist online, patients will be able to take a picture of their wound or skin lesion and, using an app, be able to collect the information required by a specialist to make a remote diagnosis. The process would include capturing the relevant information, sending it to Anywhere Healthcare and having an appropriate specialist review the images and notes, with a diagnosis potentially being available in as little as 24 hours.
vendors are also engaged to assist in areas of high service demand such as Medical Transcription. It is not hard for an organisation like Anywhere Healthcare to attract employees, as people like the work the company is doing. Their employees, specialists and referring GPs believe in equitable access to healthcare and in improving healthcare in regional or remote areas. Anywhere Healthcare enables specialists to work flexible hours, and to fit a telehealth practice around their other public and private practice commitments. Anywhere Healthcare also enables specialists to work from any location within Continuous Improvement Australia, provided they have Anywhere Healthcare is access to the Internet, which constantly evaluating its practice particularly suits specialists who and services offered to ensure have young children or who are that they are clinically relevant and winding down from the long hours appropriate. They have engaged generally required to maintain a full approximately 30 specialists in time practice, as well as those who varied fields of practice, and have 14 wish to live in regional areas but employees who focus on the clinical, do not have sufficient local patient IT and marketing aspects to support demand to make it viable. and build the practice. Furthermore, Anywhere Healthcare has to ensure the timely delivery of experienced strong growth; patient-centre care, third-party since the practice was launched w w w. a n y w h e r e h e a l t h c a r e . c o m . a u
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in October 2012, the number of consultations they conduct has grown on average by around 30 percent compound, month on month. Holt believes there’s significant untapped potential for health consultations online. 216
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Currently, approximately one percent of all psychiatry consultations in Australia are conducted online, and there is the opportunity for most areas of healthcare to reflect similar numbers. With more than 100
H E A LT H
Company Information INDUSTRY
Health EMPLOYEES
Samuel Holt, Director of online care REVENUE
$5.9 billion PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Healthcare consultations via video
million consultations conducted in Australia each year, Anywhere Healthcare has a large market to target. In three to five years’ time, the organisation aims to be conducting somewhere between 300,000 to a million video consultations and asynchronous healthcare interactions each year. w w w. a n y w h e r e h e a l t h c a r e . c o m . a u
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