June (Frankston & Mornington Peninsula) by Keith Platt

business & LEISURE: Frankston I Mornington Peninsula I Dandenong

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CONTENTS

Expert, Approachable, Responsive

Features

Accessible travel: A wake-up call to tourism operators

who/what/where

. business law .

. international trade & relationships . . commercial litigation .

Track record:

bUSiNESS & LEiSURE: Frankston i Mornington Peninsula i Dandenong

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A Dandenong MD keeps wheels turning Track record Jill Walsh lines up for manufacturers

STOREyTiME

FRANKSTON COUNCIL SETS NEW LEVEL WITH HIGH RISE OK

WORLD MARKET TRAVEL MAN HIGHLIGHTS MARKET SHARE THAT’S ALL ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY

BEiNG ASSURED PLANNING FOR FINANCIAL SECURITY WILL AVOID FINANCIAL DISASTER

. copyright, trade marks & patents . Business Times / ISSUE 14 / JUNE 2011 FRANKSTON / MORNINGTON PENINSULA / DANDENONG . corporate acquisitions Publisher / Director TONY MURRELL & sales . Editorial Director KEITH PLATT Sales Director MARG HARRISON . corporate counsel Managing Director DAVID HILET Material production / Prepress MELANIE LARKE

SIMON BROWN . business debt

Design MARLON PLATT

recovery .

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FEEDBACK

Extra ‘s’ bends highway WE fell for the old three-card trick by feminising Australia’s Highway No 1 in our story ‘Return of the bacon’ (Page 3, last issue). Referring to the old Dandy Ham sign being relocated (yet again), we stated that originally the sign “was clearly visible as people entered the town (Dandenong) from Princess Highway. What a difference an “s” makes: of course Highway No 1 is Princes Highway, which in accordance with proper English should be Prince’s Highway with the possessive apostrophe between the “e” and the “s”. Reader Niki Curtis, administration manager of Aluminium and Glass Industries Pty Ltd, was justifiably “appalled” by our mistake. She added: “The most iconic – and longest – highway in Australia is being continually and increasingly mis-named in television media, signage everywhere and in the print media…” According to Niki “none of these information sources themselves understand the reason Princes’ (sic) Highway is so named or the history behind it.

Highway 1: Princes Highway.

“If more people knew the reason for the name, fewer people would incorrectly use the feminine spelling. Somehow, I don’t think anything will save the apostrophe.” Our limited research shows that while there are varying versions of where and when the road was named, there’s general agreement that Princes

Highway was created when pre-existing roads (most unnamed) were renamed ‘Prince’s Highway’ after the visit to Australia in 1920 of the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VIII and, after abdicating, the Duke of Windsor). One version, recorded in Wikipedia, has the highway being officially named on 10 August, 1920 at Warragul, in Victoria. However, in a 2005 article ‘M1/A1 Princes Hwy/Fwy East: History behind the road’ Sam Laybutt writes that: “The Princes Highway as we know it was born on the 19th of October, 1920, named the Prince’s Highway in a ceremony at Bulli Pass, NSW.” Probably it’s just another example of NSW v. Victoria rivalry. The Princes Highway extends from Sydney to Port Augusta around the coast through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, a distance of 1941 km. Because of the rural nature and lower traffic volumes over much of its length, the Princes Highway is a more scenic and leisurely route than the main highways linking Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. As the road passes through eastern Melbourne, it first becomes Lonsdale St (through Dandenong), then Dandenong Rd to St Kilda.

richardson industrial June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 3

NETWORKING

Budget breakfast v THE Grant Thornton Budget Breakfast

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FRANKSTON Business Chamber had its latest meeting on 18 May, 2011, at McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin. 1. Rob Dare, Fiona Atkin and George Bacon, of Crown Business Systems. 2. The new chamber committee (from left) Jacqui Carroll, massage therapist;

Peter Cracknell, Green with Envy; Karin Hann, Business chamber executive officer; Sam Jackson, Frankston City economic development department; Peter Patterson, Replas; Max Coulthard, Monash University; Alan Chambers, Filing Solutions; and Robyn Anderson, HR Navigation.

Oz Child v

Business chamber

was at Docklands on May 11, 2011: 1. Jeannene Stewart, director of corporate services of the Victoria State Emergency Services, with Scott Harley, a partner at Grant Thornton. 2. Janine Ellis, CEO of Boost Juice, Professor Neville Norman, of Melbourne University, Ian Herman, managing director of Grant Thornton, and Launa Inman, managing director of Target.

Oz Child business networking event at The Chifley, Doveton, on 10 May, 2011: From left Michael Bere, CEO of Oz Child, Margaret Harrison, of BusinessTimes who spoke of her experience over eight years as a respite carer for Oz Child, Rajeev Wadhwa and Andrew Weatherhead, of Presentation Craft.

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FRANKSTON councillor and businesswomen Chris Richards is heading a project to provide emergency accommodation for the homeless. Cr Richards said Westpac, City Life and “a small group of concerned Frankston citizens” needed $18,500 for two rooms for a six-month trial. Frankston Council has pledged $5000. Other money will be raised by auctioning art donated by Frankston TAFE students. Artworks in a “silent auction” will be shown this month at Westpac’s three Frankston branches.

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WHEN finished, the 13-storey $50 million Ario apartment block will be the highest building in Frankston. Not only is it higher than the 12-level Peninsula Centre, but its location in Davey St is on a ridge overlooking the city centre and Port Phillip. Plans for the building were approved by Frankston Council in May and developer Ross Voci says construction will start in February, 2012. Like other developers, many reputedly standing on the sidelines waiting for someone to make the first move, Voci says the negative perception of Frankston “is probably the biggest obstacle” to investment. “I’m hoping that the media take more of a positive interest in Frankston and promote not just the building but all the other up and coming infrastructures like the marina, public pool, bypass, and the overall improvement to the central area that has already started with the boardwalk and the approval of a high end project like Ario.”

Rates to collect more

June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 5

BUSY bites

Permit activity robust BUILDING permit activity in Victoria for March, 2011, remained strong with the value of building permits issued totalling $2.2 billion, according to the Victorian Building Commission. A total 9554 building permits were issued with the strongest growth in residential (including high rise), commercial, retail and industrial sectors. While a record month, and the sixth consecutive month this financial year to exceed $2 billion, building permit activity continued to soften in the domestic sector.

Roadworks A $4.7 million contract for road resurfacing has been signed by Frankston City and Boral Resources (VIC) Pty Ltd.

Outasight A JAPANESE researcher has been awarded for inventing a filter that shows non-colourblind people the problems faced by those who cannot see all colours. With an estimated 200 million colourblind people worldwide, the filter can show problems they encounter when colours are used in combination. The combinations can then be avoided in industry, printed materials, public signs and textbooks.

Banks ‘crucial’ to national growth: ABA solid bank profits are crucial for Australia’s longterm economic stability and to secure jobs growth, according to the Australian Bankers’ Association. Steven Munchenberg, Chief Executive of the ABA, said a strong banking system meant Australia did not face the economic problems experienced in some other countries like the USA and the UK during the global financial crisis. “There’s an important social benefit of profitable and well capitalised banks – they underpin economic growth by providing finance to businesses, keep people employed, keep our savings safe and continue to support the financial decisions of Australians,” Munchenberg said. “Around 70 per cent of the banks’ profits are paid to shareholders in the form of dividends – with the majority of this pay-out going to superannuation funds and ‘mum and dad’ shareholders. “In fact, over the past year, dividends paid to

shareholders were at a record level of $16.8 billion.” As banks report their interim profits, the ABA said it was “keen to ensure that any debate on banks’ results is based on facts”. The ABA said it was incorrect to assume that all profit comes from households. “In broad terms, the contribution to bank profits from households is less than half of that for other contributors. The majority of bank profits are generated from businesses and institutional banking, funds management and other activities. A smaller percentage of total profits come from offshore activities.

Union membership on the wane THE proportion of employees who were trade union members in their main job decreased from 20 per cent in August, 2009, to 18 per cent in August, 2010. This represents 1.8 million trade union members in their main job, a fall of 47,300 from the previous year, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Public sector employees drove the change, with the proportion of trade union members in their main job falling from 46 per cent in August, 2009, to 41 per cent in August, 2010. The proportion of private sector employees who were trade union members in their main job remained steady at 14 per cent. There were a further 75,200

employees who were members of a trade union although not in connection to their main job. Two thirds of trade union members (66 per cent) had been a trade union member for five years or more, compared with 10 per cent who had been a trade union member for less than one year. There were 1.4 million employees who were not currently members of a trade union, although had been previously. Of these, 77 per cent hadn’t been a trade union member for five years or more. More details are available in Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership, Australia, August 2010 (cat. no. 6310.0). Available for free download from www.abs.gov.au

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Protection for intellectual property Intellectual Property (IP) is an important part of business, applying to such assets as confidential information, designs, and inventions. By understanding what counts as IP, business owners can take the correct steps to ensure their enterprise is protected. IP is the general name given to the laws covering patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, circuit layouts, and plant breeder’s rights. It vitally affects business because confidential information, designs and inventions contribute to the success of many businesses. In most cases you must take formal steps to have your IP registered. The exceptions are copyright and circuit layout rights, which are automatically protected. Patents A patent is a right granted for any device, substance, method or process which is new, inventive and useful. There are two types of patents in Australia: Standard patents: provide long-term protection and control over an invention for up to 20 years from the day you file your complete application. Standard patents are normally processed within 14 months. Innovation patents: last for up to eight years and are specifically designed to protect creations that do not meet the requirements for standard patents. These are generally granted within one month and provide intellectual property rights for innovative ideas or creations that may not necessarily be new inventions. Innovation patents don’t allow you to legally stop others from copying your innovation unless you have your innovation patent examined. Trademarks A registered trade mark under the Trade Marks Act 1995 gives you the exclusive legal right to use, licence or sell your goods or services in Australia. It distinguishes your goods and services from others

in the marketplace. A trade mark can be a letter, number, word, phrase, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture, aspect of packaging or any combination of these. Registration of a business name does not in itself give you any proprietary rights. If you require exclusive use of your business name, you should consider registering it as a trade mark. Copyright Copyright provides legal protection for people who express ideas and information in certain forms including writing, music, visual images, broadcasts, sound recording, moving images and computer programs. Copyright protection is provided under the Copyright Act 1968 and it is designed to prevent the unauthorised use by others of a work that is the original form in which the idea or information has been expressed by the creator. Copyright protection is free and has no registration process, but it is advisable for copyright owners to place a copyright notice in a prominent place on their work. Confidentiality/trade secrets Confidentiality, also referred to as trade secrets, is both a type of intellectual property (IP) and a strategy for IP protection. Make sure you back up your trade secrets with a confidentiality agreement signed by every person who has knowledge of the secrets. A confidentiality agreement can stop your employees from revealing your secret or proprietary knowledge during and after their employment or association with your business. Other IP types include registered designs, circuit layout rights, plant breeder’s rights, international protection and intellectual property and taxation. IP Australia is the federal government agency responsible for granting rights in patents, trade marks and designs. Visit IP Australia’s Smart Start and IP Toolbox websites.

Retail tend ‘gloomy’ THE sobering reality of the retail sectors’ struggle back to recovery has been bought home with the release of retail figures for March showing a 0.5 per cent drop, despite a reasonably buoyant start to the year, Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) CEO Margy Osmond said: “While the retail figures for January and February showed signs of improvement, the March drop is a better reflection of what retailers are seeing in-store. “Drawn out sales periods and rebuilding after the Queensland and Victorian floods accounted for much of the improved activity in the first part of the quarter – without that stimulus, retail figures have dropped. In fact, this result has eliminated any positive growth seen in the first two months of the year. “Despite the Reserve Bank keeping the cash rate stable since November, the sector can anticipate slow growth, if there is any growth at all, in the coming months,” Osmond said.

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travel for the diSabled

Bill Forrester is somewhat like the Braun shaver man who was so impressed by the shaver that he bought the company. In Forrester’s case the product is a little more general. The son of an airline executive, he grew up travelling and loving it, so, a few years ago, after a long and varied corporate career, he bought three travel agencies in southeast Melbourne.

TALKING UP A NEW ACCESSIBLE travel consultants Bill Forrester and Deborah Davis aboard a bayou airboat in the Florida Everglades.

By Tony Murrell

iconic sights as Niagara Falls.” The offshoot business called Travability was created with the aim “to open as much of the world as we can to all”. Still in its infancy Travability operates mainly as a source of free information for travellers with disabilities, although it is a registered agency offering a full range of travel services to people seeking accessible

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He soon spotted a gap in the travel market that, like many opportunities, was borne out of frustration as well as a sense of injustice. It started as a campaign to help get a better deal for disabled travellers. Only later did Forrester see a growing opportunity for the travel industry generally. That was four years ago in 2007 when he was organising a tour for a group of elite disabled sailors heading for their inaugural world championships in Toronto, Canada. “It was so frustrating, this lack of support from the general travel organisations, that we decided to do something about it,” he said. “It was farcical. I couldn’t even get accessibility information for such

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experiences. However, Forrester sees the brightest future for the business as a consultancy to the tourism industry, specialising in information and marketing of accessible facilities and attractions. Already Travability is regarded as a world leader in inclusive tourism as evidenced by the fact that Forrester was invited to open the 2011 Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality World Congress in Florida “Travability doesn’t seek to find special tour operators, but inclusive destinations and accommodation that can be enjoyed by all,” said Forrester, who is joined in the enterprise by US citizen

understanding other cultures remained as he matured. Most of his working life has been spent in financial and operational roles, specialising in corporate and cultural change. He has worked in the private, mutual and government sectors. Deborah Davis was born and raised on the east coast of the US and now lives in Miami. She was involved in a car accident at the age of 18, sustaining a

MARKET IN TRAVEL Deborah Davis. The two – Forrester calls Davis “the founding inspiration” – identified a culture in the tourism industry that prevented inclusiveness of travellers with disabilities. Forrester was born and raised in Melbourne and as a child travelled to many parts of the world. The passion he developed for learning and

C6/7 spinal cord injury resulting in incomplete quadriplegia. She has had a successful career in the medical sales field and was Director of Abilities Florida. The problem found by Davis and Forrester was not the

lack of accessible destinations (there are literally thousands of those, says Forrester), but economic and social mindsets, mainly based on myth. The result? Almost no one advertises accessibility. As well, compliance laws throughout the world have proved a double-edged sword: while legislation over the past 22 years has forced improved disabled access across the board, the new facilities are seen as a cost to the tourism industry, not a benefit to be advertised and exploited commercially by tourism operators. Forrester says the travel industry is only just beginning to tumble to the myth that people with disabilities don’t travel. The ‘can do’ baby boomers are a wake-up call to tourism operators but they (the operators) still don’t get the importance (and benefits) of being inclusive. It’s a message that Forrester has been taking to tourism summits around the world over the past couple of years. There’s an anecdote about lost opportunity and the lack of inclusiveness that Forrester often uses to make his point. It concerns the adrenaline-pumping ride in a jet boat along Shotover River at Queenstown on New Zealand’s ww14 South Island.

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COVER STORY: A struggle to preserve manufacturing

md keeps the

WHEELS turn ng

HE cost to Victoria of losing the train game will be a loss of manufacturing capacity and a brain drain. Few Victorians know about the game, but for Jill Walsh it has been a priority for years. As the general manager of the ARM Group of companies, Walsh’s working life revolves around the lucrative and highly skilled business of making the rolling stock which forms the backbone of the state’s public transport network. But intense competition from overseas has seen contract after contract leave our shores as politicians seek to prune their budgets, without acknowledging the consequences to Victoria’s “working families” or the state’s manufacturing base. The ARM consortium was created to give the government an option to make rolling stock in Dandenong. The five companies under the ARM umbrella are Southport Engineering, CP Engineering, Actco-Pickering Metal Industries, Australian Rail Manufacturers and ARM Rollforming. They and a myriad of SMEs form a supply chain into Bombardier, the German-based company that won Victoria’s major train building contracts. “Large companies don’t want to deal with many different companies,” Walsh says. “We did the spade work on forming the cluster, which is now a really successful consortium.” Walsh says it took a “fair bit of effort” to bring the companies together and hinged on being able to develop mutual trust after she

Words and pictures by Keith Platt and Pete Smith of Southport Engineering met while “lobbying in the corridors of power”. This was at a time when the Kennett Liberal government was refusing to include a mandatory local content in large infrastructure projects and orders were “disappearing overseas”.   With just one major contract left to fill after Labor came to power, Walsh, Smith and executives from several other companies decided “we couldn’t allow it to go overseas or it would be the end of rail manufacturing in this state forever”. ARM was born out of mutual need and Walsh began her task of raising its profile, with both Bombardier and the government. She says her constant campaigning earned her a reputation that included being labeled the godmother of the Dandenong manufacturers’ mafia and a rebel. She was appreciative of $150,000 put into the campaign by the City of Greater Dandenong, but fears it ultimately contributed towards the CEO Warwick Heine leaving the council. “They [councillors] couldn’t see the flow-on benefits,” Walsh says. Walsh said ARM had been able to prove that producing trains gave the state a net benefit.

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ABOVE: Jill Walsh with Australian Rollforming managing director Henry Wolfkamp at ARM group’s new Gaine Rd, Dandenong South, factory. Australian Rollforming was inducted into the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame on 26 May. The award was for manufacturing excellence. LEFT: Jill Walsh om the factory floor.

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“The Velocity was built here in Dandenong and has been shown to be the most reliable diesel in the world. It was the first train delivered on time and on budget. ” Preparing a bid for part of the fast train project, ARM spent $150,000 in 12 months on a project manager only to have the project shelved. Walsh says a blowout occurred because the government figures did not take account of tracks or signals. Obviously a tenacious and logical negotiator, it comes as a shock when Walsh volunteers that she is an Aquarian, as part explanation for her approach to business and life. Aquarian traits include being friendly and humanitarian, honest and loyal, original and inventive, independent and intellectual. However, and this is why some politicians may have misjudged her, Aquarians are also intractable and contrary, perverse and unpredictable , unemotional and detached. The humanitarian trait is born out when Walsh explains “our houses are on the line with what we do. Our staff’s houses are on the line – I go home at night and worry about all these houses”. She says her ambitious nature showed itself early, having moved to the city as a teenager from a small town near Yallourn.

Her first job was as a receptionist telephonist that quickly turned into being placed in charge of the firm’s accounts department. She met her husband of 42 years, Owen (head of Actco and a director of ARM) while on holiday in Queensland. She was 20 when they moved to Sydney where she continued studying accountancy at night school and managed the office of a plastics manufacturer. At 23 they were back in Melbourne and she was again appointed to a managerial position, this time with a staff of 16 in 11 branches. “My mother always said I’d get a good job because I was a very bossy little girl.” Walsh says she manages time “very well”, enjoys logistics and “likes people a lot”. She attends seminars and does courses outside her field “because there’s always something to be learned … you can’t afford to get behind in your thinking”. Walsh has worked most of her adult life, taking two years off after the birth of her son. The couple then took over Owen’s parents’ hotel at Southport, eventually staying 15 years on the Gold Coast. Returning to Melbourne they bought Actco metal industries in Seaford “just in time for the 1990s recession”. “It was character building; I had to get out and knock on doors.” One door led to a $100 order from the predecessor to Bombardier. “It opened a door and we got a reputation for quality and caring for our clients,” Walsh says. The rest, as they say, is history.

June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 11

IT ISSUES

Is it time for a server? Sometimes it’s the first question I am asked when I arrive for a chat about things. In reality it’s not about timing but more about need. Sometimes servers are touted as being the “fix-all” for any office situation but when installed for the wrong reasons they can often overcomplicate the situation. It’s about taking stock of your current system, looking at any shortcomings and really taking the time to understand where you need to be heading with your setup. There is no doubt that in many situations, consolidating all your storage, setting a proper backup and enabling technologies like shared mailboxes / calendars is usually a giant step forward for the progressive office. But what if you’re one of the thousands of small businesses that only have one or two employees – how can you benefit from all the bells and whistles? Servers are not just for the large enterprise anymore, and there are solutions that can be made to fit in almost any budget. There are alternatives that will deliver the functions you need without the firepower that you don’t. The options are vast, so before you adopt the one-shoe-fits-all idea sit down and chat about what we can do to tailor the perfect solution. By Matthew Gordon, Managing Director, Solution One (03) 5987 1565.

Living the dream (Part 2) After last month’s focus on take your office anywhere you go, we’re going to look at expanding on that idea and examining how we can deliver that technology to a larger pool of your workforce. We spoke last time of being able to access your office PC remotely in a safe and secure manner from anywhere, but what do we do if everyone in your office wants to adopt that technology? Do we leave all your office PC’s on 24/7? What if you have employees who would like remote access but don’t have a designated desktop PC in the office? The answer is a terminal server: a purpose built server that sits in your office and provides the desktop computer experience for your staff regardless of their location. Not only can the terminal server take on the role of all your office desktops, but it also simplifies the management of your desktop fleet. We’re essentially on the path to “The Cloud” as soon as we consider this type of technology as it can take the need for desktop computers away as well. A terminal server is designed to handle virtual desktops for as many users as you need. There is obviously a limit, but provided the right server is put in for the right reason this should not come into play. Being able to deliver the same desktop experience to your staff regardless of their location is an excellent way on nurturing productivity. Printers, faxes and even scanners can be used as if the user was sitting right next to you in the office – and let’s not forget that all your documents and shared drives and folders are now right at your fingertips. The best bit is that your data and information don’t leave the premises. Everything is worked on the terminal server. Users can connect and disconnect as they please,

leaving their session open and subsequently anything they were in the middle of is ready to roll as soon as they reconnect. No more closing programs and shutting down in the middle of a task – simply hit the pause button. The best part to all of this is that in most cases a terminal server can simply be bolted on to your existing network and can be setup to work in with your existing infrastructure.

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FINANCIAL SERVICES

Business assurance Unexpected events like death, disability or a major health event involving a business owner can have disastrous effects on the financial stability of a business. And it can even create financial hardship on a personal level for the estate or surviving owners. Small to medium sized businesses depending on a select few people to produce the profits, provide the capital, or manage people to produce the profits in the business, are most at risk. For example: • If a business owner dies, becomes disabled, or suffers a major health event: • Will the surviving owners be forced into business with the family of the deceased? • Will the family contribute to the management of the business and ‘pull their weight’, or will they be more of a hindrance but still drawing on the full share of the profits? Or • Even worse, will the bank be concerned enough to call in a loan? • How would the business repay the loan? • If the business couldn’t repay the loan, would the bank call on the personal guarantees given by the owners? Business assurance protects business clients by ensuring the business can survive. It also demonstrates to creditors and shareholders principles of good financial management and planning. There are a few core areas of business insurance:

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Key person insurance Loan protection Buy/sell arrangements (business will) Income protection. Understanding your business structures, including share ownership and original start date will help us ascertain if your business structure could be subject to capital gains tax. We do this by using a business fact finder that will give us a clear snap shot of your current business model. When the share of a business is passed to the remaining shareholders it normally triggers a capital gain, and therefore an allowance needs to be made to cover this. We will also ensure you have an adequately prepared business will (by sell agreement) as many clients neglect to cover off on this most important part of insurance planning. We see a lot of business planning that is structured under superannuation incorrectly. An important part of this planning will also include major health events cover, and many new clients we see do not have this important feature in their planning. We will also minute any key person cover which gives the tax department a heads up as to whether this is revenue, or capital purpose. This is another area that is very often misused, with dire tax consequences.

By Mark Dunsford, Director, Financial Service Partners. Fellow of AFA. At Financial Services Partners we provide qualified financial advice and assistance to many people in our area. Crafting the exact strategy for you requires understanding your current situation, and then providing a suitable outcome for you and your business. We can offer you a complimentary, no obligation consultation with one of our qualified financial advisers, to help you determine if you are on track to adequately protect your business against a personal health risk.

The advice you seek and implement today can make a significant difference to your superannuation and your ultimate retirement lifestyle. Your financial adviser can also help you make sense of the current market volatility. Take action now The team at Financial Services Partners Carrum Downs can help. They have already helped their clients protect their retirement savings and still stay invested. What’s more, they’ve actually won the Financial Services Partners Victorian State award which recognises their solid business performance. They are the largest financial planning business on the Mornington Peninsula and have been advising clients for 29 years.

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Mark Dunsford, Anthony Donnellan, Andrea Jenkins, David Williams and Priyanka Wijesekera invite you to make an obligation-free appointment to discuss your superannuation, life insurance, your expectations and your retirement goals.

June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 13

travel for the disabled 8 It is a truly wild, exciting ride and it is fully accessible to a person with a disability. There is disabled parking on the river bank; check-in at the river hut; level access to the jetty; assistance with boarding; safe wheelchair storage; the wheelchair is delivered back to the wharf for disembarkation; assistance out of the boat is available; accessible parking at the service centre Bill Forrester and gift shop; and accessible toilet facilities. Yet, operators of this mother-of-all rides make no mention of these services in their brochures or advertising. It’s tucked away on their website under “about us/other facilities”. Forrester’s point is that these operators are providing a service because either they have to or believe “it is the right thing to do” not because they see a potentially valuable market. “They are accommodating a traveller with a disability, but it’s not true inclusion.” Forrester said the culture of inclusiveness means people of all abilities feel welcome and wanted as customers and guests. His more formal definition is the “application of the seven principles of Universal Design to the products, services, and policies of the tourism industry at all stages of their lifecycle from conception to retirement and introduction of a replacement”. Put simply, this means that anyone sitting down to plan a facility or entertainment for public use should consider accessibility before the first pencil line is drawn. Forrester can think of only one truly great example of accessible tourism – the Ice Explorer at Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada. “A third of the fleet is wheelchair lift-equipped but, more than that, the operators’ philosophy is that they want to see everybody on the glacier enjoying the experience together. They take no notice ww

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of the statistics of disabled persons on the glacier. They clearly and prominently advertise their accessibility.” Like most fighting battles on the periphery of social conscience, Forrester is intense. But his accounting background gives order and logic to his all-embracing take on accessible, inclusive travel. “Planning is critical for disabled travellers: they have to plan in more detail. The industry doesn’t realise this and neither does it realise that these travellers are rarely alone, so there’s a multiplier effect. This really comes into play when you consider that a growing number of businesses practice equal opportunity. “There are more disabled people in corporations. These people will be attending conferences, so conference centres must understand they will miss out on business if they don’t let it be known that their facilities are inclusive. There are so many operators who don’t understand a market exists; they are providing accessibility because they have to or out of the goodness of their hearts – they just don’t realise there’s an opportunity for them. Resorts have million dollar pools, yet they don’t have an hydraulic poolside lift costing $2000.” Forrester says that the disability-related spend on travel and accommodation in Australia in 2008 was 11 per cent of the market. “I don’t know of any other business that ignores 11 per cent of its market. The 2020 projection is for the sector to be worth 25 per cent of the market, fuelled by retirements of baby boomers.” Forrester adds that the two growth areas in travel are the luxury market and the disability market – and the two are tied together. “January 1 this year the first baby boomers turned 65. In the US that figure equates to 10,000 people retiring each day.” • Bill Forrester and others will discuss the economics of accessible and inclusive tourism at the June forum of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council.

There’s no substitute for local knowledge. And we’re as local as it gets. Your Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banker has the local expertise and knowledge to help your business grow and succeed. To put us to work for your business, give Elissa MacSporran a call today on 5100 0703. commbank.com.au/business Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124. CLA1108

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Phone Michelle for an obligation free appointment to discuss your Business Succession needs. 14 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | June 2011

news

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City increasing debt

Paul Claringbold is finance director at the Garry and Warren Smith Group, which has motor dealerships at Oakleigh, Mulgrave and Ringwood . He has been with the group since 1989 and is responsible for day-to-day financial stability, planning and statutory reporting. I dreamed of being ... a champion Geelong footballer, just lacked the ability, size and speed. My first paid job was ... mowing lawns at my mum’s school. In 10 years I will be ... enjoying retirement and drinking fine red wine with my friends. Our business planning entails ... understanding and listening to our market and budgeting to meet the changing demands of the market. Tip for success ... be willing

to listen to your staff and your customers, never be afraid to take a risk and never stick with a job you don’t enjoy. I am inspired by ... anyone who started behind the eight ball, took a risk and followed their heart and nose to success. Anyone starting a business should ... do their due dilligence

first, seek advice, study your competition and ensure there is enough working capital to get through the inevitable slow first few months. I’ll know I’m successful when ... my day begins when I want it to begin. My mother and father always told me ... never be afraid to ask questions and don’t be disappointed if the answer isn’t what you expected or wanted to hear I wish I had ... listened to a stock tip some time ago for Dioro, it was $0.061 and now trading at $1.29. I could have retired. I wish I had not ... given my cricket captain out LBW when, unbeknowns to me, he was on 99. For some reason he never picked me for the next game.

THE City of Greater Dandenong plans to owe $36 million by the end of the 2011/12 financial year, including $15.2m in new loans for capital works and $9.2m towards new municipal buildings. Rates make up 47 per cent of the budget’s $144.68m operating revenue. Council says it has been able to make residential rates the second lowest in a group of 13 eastern Melbourne metropolitan councils by “shifting the rate revenue burden … to its commercial and industrial sector”. Salaries are 40.5 per cent of expenditure, with staff due to receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise in the next year.

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June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 15

worldwide breakthrough

Red Spot is the sugar coating on CIT’s recipe By Keith Platt

Eric Schell and his partners at Coating & Industry Technologies (CIT) have had a worldwide breakthrough. They see doors to the huge the north American market opening in the wake of products being accredited for use by General Motors and a partnership with paints market leader Red Spot Paint and Varnish. “We have been working with Holden here in Australia for some time and two years ago they asked if our systems could be made available in north America,” Mr Schell says. The south Dandenong-based CIT set about researching a recipe for products to coat plastics that would meet GM’s stringent world standards criteria. In the end, after passing a string of environmental and technical tests, one of the last hurdles was demonstrating that CIT’s coatings would not be adversely affected by insect repellent or sunscreen. Another test involved the reaction between plastics and paint (volatile organic

COVERING THE compounds or VOC) that can leave a residue seen on the inside of windscreens. The coatings remained immune to the two chemical-laden products, making way for Sigma Color and Gamma Based Systems to be added to GM’s approved products list. CIT is now an approved supplier to companies applying finish coatings to both GM and Toyota vehicles.

“We didn’t know how the tests would go, but to our positive surprise we came in well below the target rating,” Mr Schell said. “From that moment on we decided to go to the US and find a partner to take our technology there and other parts of the world.” Partnering with Red Spot gives CIT the leverage of larger manufacturers, something often denied SMEs.

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“The whole point is to make the product in the US. If we were bigger, we would transplant the company there,” Mr Schell said. “It’s very important to find the right partner and we’ve now made our first transfer of technology, our recipe, to Evansville [Red Spot’s headquarters in Indiana]. “Red Spot is a market leader and has always been recognised as such world wide. For us, they are the dream partner.” The association with Red Spot will see the products manufactured and marketed in the US. The Sigma coating is especially attractive to manufacturers as it can be applied without a primer, effectively cutting time and cost. “It’s a very technical area, but we believe we have a world first and Red Spot has always been a leader in that area of coatings. “Adhesion is always the first aspect because materials can somehow change after coming into contact with such everyday items as sunscreen and insect repellents.” Mr Schell said Australia already had

Victorian premier Steve Bracks, who in 2008 was commissioned by the federal government to head a major review of the Australian automotive industry. The trip enabled CIT to network with major US firms and reinforce its association by visiting Red Spot’s MAIN PHOTO: KEITH PLATT headquarters. Mr Schell said coatings was a niche area and companies involved, along with vehicle manufacturers, sustained a big hit from the 2008 global financial crisis. “It was as though businesses in the trade had locked their doors and just walked away,” he said. for polypropylene which is a one-step process “It hit everyone, so we went into other as opposed to the more costly process areas, including developing a non-sacrificial requiring a primer and flare treatment before permanent anti-graffiti coating that can be applying the final coating. applied to timber, metal, plastics, stone and “Technology moves on and the Sigma rendered walls. system just happened to be the one we had “You can’t stop people using markers, developed. We have been able to achieve but our approach was to have a coating very specific results required for the latest that could be cleaned and still represent the automotive colour styling – a single unit original finish.” low gloss that has the same resistance as the Once coated, according to CIT specifications, the defaced surfaces can be cleaned without having to be repainted or re-coated. “The result was that we found an area out of adversity and learnt to be less reliant on the automotive industry.” CIT also makes anti-microbial coatings that can be applied to any number of previous three gloss.” appliances that could be seen as harbouring Supplying product for vehicles not about and spreading germs - from computer to hit the market for another two or three keyboards to refrigerators, bench tops, doors years also means that CIT has to enter confiand furniture. dentiality and non-disclosure agreements Research is now underway with a Swiss with vehicle manufacturers wanting to firm into creating anti-microbial coatings for protect their future designs. medical equipment, prostheses and implants. Mr Schell was part of a 13-company trade CIT’S aim is to open up new markets for its mission to Detroit in May led by former products. FAR LEFT: Eric Schell, a partner in Coating & Industrial Technologies, Dandenong; and LEFT: Automotive parts coated by CIT’s products.

MOTOR TRADE stringent UV exposure ratings, something that stood out when coatings on early-model imported European cars “basically failed in the harsh environment of Australia”. “We start developing new coatings from the ground up – we’re specialists when it comes to coatings on plastics. “The Sigma system has given us an edge. We’ve been able to come up with a coating

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60 Robinson St DANDENONG P: 9794 0010 - 105a High St CRANBOURNE P: 5995 4588 - Shop 51 Station St, Mall FRANKSTON P: 9769 6660 June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 17

MANAGEMENT

Freshen up your long term strategy Around this time of year, many businesses are preparing a plan for the next financial year. While you may work on your financial plan, make you sure that your long term strategy is fresh and up to date and that you have built into next year’s plan, all the initiatives and activities that will support your strategy. When you are preparing your budget for next year, it is usually done by looking in the rear vision mirror by basing the budget on what happened in the last couple of years. Now we know that these years have been very unusual because the factors with the biggest impact were the global financial crisis and the federal government’s response with their stimulus package. These factors distorted the normal process of most businesses and caused a significant disruption with either negative or positive impacts. Basing this year’s budget on this period is risky, as these major disruptions fade in significance and the economic cycle stabilises ~ hopefully! Strategy should drive your plans that drive your budgets, but how fresh is your strategy? If you have not refreshed your business strategy in the last couple of years and have focussed your activities on just getting through the GFC, then you are probably missing a great opportunity to lift your business performance during this next phase of recovery. This is not a normal time period where “business as usual” will automatically work for you. This is a time where “business unusual” is the norm. If you can really understand the changes that are taking place in your competitive environment and shift your business strategy to take advantage of them, then your business can thrive. So what sort of factors should be considered in refreshing your strategy? The first stage is to really step back to the global level and identify macro changes that are occurring that can relate in some way to your business. For example, the change in technology is impacting nearly every business. One of the key drivers for this is the growth of internet shopping and the mobilisation of data. Social networking is a major part of the lives of many younger people. These represent both a threat and an opportunity to most businesses

Hamish Petrie*

Business Consultant

and cannot be ignored. The arrival of the national broadband network over the next few years will extend this impact so your business should be ready for it. There are a multitude of global factors which will impact your business and, although these are well outside your control, you need to be able to shift your business strategy to take advantage of them. Think about such things as the environment, global warming, diversity, exchange rates, oil price, shifting demographics and immigration. The next step is to start to localise your thinking on these external factors by looking progressively at the national, state, regional and then local changes that will shape your competitive conditions. Once you have identified the major factors that that will shape your business over the coming years, It does not matter how you develop your strategy, but it does matter that, once it is decided, it permeates every aspect of your business. then you need to consider action alternatives, which will grow your business in the best possible ways. Obviously, there has to be a financial plan that underpins the strategy, so this is where you can derive some of the specific goals that connect to your strategy. Your non-financial goals and your key enablers can be derived by combining these analyses with the input from your team. This does not have to be a long, boring process, but can be a short stimulating process in which you can involve as many of your team as possible. Creativity in this process is really important and it is one where diversity of thought should be encouraged. This way, you can really tap into the range of ideas

18 | BusinessTimes Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong | June 2011

and issues across a slice of your people. For example, design an internal process where you assign different roles to each member of your team and have them think about these issues from that specific perspective. This will get them out of their normal mode of thinking and increase the creativity of the entire team. If that does not work well, then borrow someone else’s head. For example, ask the team – “ How would X solve this issue”, where X can be any individual or organisation. I recently saw an example of this where X had been Walt Disney, but you can be creative and use anyone whose creativity you admire. If you are still looking for creativity, then there is an iPhone app called the Idea Stimulator that has some useful ideas on processes and ideas to get your team out of their normal box. It does not matter how you develop your strategy, but it does matter that, once it is decided, it permeates every aspect of your business. The deployment of strategy is where many businesses miss out. Every team member should understand the business strategy and be able to explain how their job relates to the business strategy. While the development of strategy can be a short and focussed process, deployment of strategy takes a long time and must be reinforced every day by the business leader and top people in the business. If this is done well, then every little action and every decision made throughout the business will contribute to keeping both the strategy and its implementation fresh.

Action planning questions: 1. Have you refreshed your business strategy, based on an in-depth review that considered external factors from the global to local levels? 2. Have you determined the major external factors that will change your competitive environment in the next few years? 3. Have you stimulated the creativity of your people by including them in the strategy review process? 4. Have you confirmed deployment of your strategy by asking some of your people to explain how their actions today connect to your strategy? *Hamish Petrie had a 37-year corporate career including 29 years with Alcoa Inc. His last position was as VP–People and Communication for the global Alcoa corporation based in New York, NY. He can be contacted at hamish@nitroworld.net or on 0404 345 103.

frankston arts centre

THE sign on Tim Dakin’s door should read “Access all areas: Everybody included”. Dakin is in his sixth year as arts access officer at Frankston Arts Centre. His job, basically, is to encourage as many people as possible to use the arts centre’s facilities. He is a one-off – occupying the only post of its kind in Australia. And he will go to great lengths to set up a group activity or arrange a volunteering role for individuals with physical or mental disabilities. “Our approach is that we can do anything until it’s well and truly proven that we can’t,” Dakin said. “Everyone gives incredible support to this philosophy: the council, arts centre management, the staff, the arts centre board and those in the community who we have reached.” When he started VicHealth funded him and his role was to attract those who rarely or never stepped inside the centre. The overarching consideration was to promote mental health and wellbeing. In the process of getting more and more people using the arts centre, Dakin knew that the community’s perception of the arts had to change. “It’s crudely put, but I have been quoted as saying that we’re setting out to bury the image of arty farty wankers.” Dakin breezes over the fact that he has faced a few hurdles, professionally and personally: every year there has been a battle to get his funding (six funding sources in six years) and he constantly struggles with depression. Ironically, it has been his depression that has given Dakin “a huge understanding that everything affects people in different ways and more tolerance for people”. On the job-funding front, he has good news because Frankston City has decided to employ him as well as fund some of the programs he has helped to introduce. Arts participation has a broad definition, according to Dakin, who sees it as simple as looking at an exhibition, seeing a show, being part of a program or using the centre foyer as a quiet refuge. Physical innovations that make the arts centre more accessible and inclusive include removable seating to allow wheelchair access and live theatre captioning for at least one performance

‘Our approach is that we can do anything until it’s well and truly proven that we can’t.’ - Tim Dakin, access officer, Frankston Arts Centre of every show bought to Frankston under the arts centre’s theatre season banner. Hearing assistance receivers that can be used as headphones or plugged in to hearing aids are helping older people enjoy their theatre experiences for a few more years. Some Auslan interpreted shows cater for those who are profoundly deaf. As well, all staff is trained to assist with guests who have mental and physical disabilities as well as handling difficult behaviours. Tim Dakin is particularly proud of the staff members who all volunteered for the extra training. “It just demonstrates our we’ll-find-a-way attitude.” A ticket subsidy scheme also helps to get more people

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Access, inclusion are Tim’s magic words

to watch live theatre. Dakin works with a raft of community organisations, which are seeing the benefits of involvement with the arts. They include Headspace, Mind, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Mental Illness fellowship, City Life, the Department of Human Services, Salvation Army and New Hope Foundation, which assists newly arrived refugees. There are numerous personal stories pointing to FAC’s success in engaging and helping. A legally blind woman attended art classes just to be with people. She had no interest in art, said she couldn’t do art and was angry at the world. Today she is entering her work in exhibitions and acts as a role model for the class. A teenage boy from a very challenging background was given a shot at his only interest, digital media. His professional tutors were so impressed with his talent that they are helping arrange a mentoring scheme and career path for this trouble youth whose attitude and behaviour is now more positive. And a young mother wanted her boy with Asperger syndrome to try out at the Hip Cat Circus, a regular program teaching tumbling skills and balance. However, she wasn’t able to use federal funding because the activity was not considered of therapeutic benefit. The arts centre offered the boy a free place for a year. Three weeks later the mum wrote a letter to Dakin listing improvements she had seen in her son. He was communicating better at home and school, his behaviour had improved and he was sharing his new skills with his friends and siblings. The whole family was benefiting, the mother wrote. As we went to press two adults who have had severe mental illnesses were being interviewed for jobs as casual ushers at the centre. Staff members have already offered to mentor any successful candidates as they regain the confidence and skills that will help them find their way back into the full-time workforce. – Tony Murrell

BOOKINGS 03 9784 1060

www.artscentre.frankston.vic.gov.au

June 2011 | Frankston / Mornington Peninsula / Dandenong BusinessTimes | 19

HEALTH

Walk a mile in the morning I love to read articles on research or breakthroughs in the health field and I don’t know about you, but most of the time when I read about the latest thing, I think to myself , “Well, der!” Sometimes the finding is so self-evident as to be laughable. Or it’s already such an established tenet of, say, Chinese medicine, that these Western scientists could have learned the same thing by attending the first lecture in Chinese Medicine 101. Last week I had one of those moments with the news that scientists had confirmed that walking is good for you, not just for your body but your mind, too. Throughout history, humanity’s many and varied philosophies of health and medicine have been in conflict on many points, but I think I can say have largely agreed on one. That is, the health benefits of regular exercise. To me, the interesting thing was the finding that gentle exercise is good for you. I’ve written before that in the West we are under the misapprehension that exhausting, high-impact physical training produces greater fitness and therefore better health. This is clearly not the case. Do we see our super-fit athletes living happily and healthily into advanced old age? Not necessarily. Fitness and health are related but not the same thing. Back in ancient Greece, the so-called father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, was already advocating for gentle exercise. “Walking is man’s best medicine,” he said. Even without the benefit of meta-analyses of the data collected in gold-standard research trials, Hippocrates was on to something. In 2008, the famous Mayo Clinic

Michael Ellis*

Chinese Herbalist

established that brisk walking for 30 minutes most days produced these benefits: lower blood pressure, prevention of type 2 diabetes, reduced weight, less osteoporosis, strengthened immune system, better digestion, less stress, less depression or anxiety, and better quality sleep. Now the Radiological Society of North America has weighed in with a finding that walking slows the cognitive decline in adults with the early stages of dementia. Of course in developed countries there is a growing proportion of ageing people. Dementia – in the range between mild cognitive impairment and full Alzheimer’s disease – is a huge and growing issue. This new study found that simply walking for several kilometres a week prevents or slows dementia. Regular walking was able to maintain brain volume (a sign of brain health) and reduce the rate of decline in already cognitively impaired patients. Why does walking work so well? From my viewpoint it’s simple. It’s all about circulation versus stagnation. Gentle exercise gets the energy, blood and fluids circulating in all parts of the body. When there is free flow, says Chinese medicine, there cannot be disease. Another US study recently compared two groups of women with an average age of

65. One group took part in regular aerobic activity, while those in the other group were inactive. You’ll not be shocked to learn that the active group had 10 per cent lower blood pressure, and higher cognitive function scores. Another study reported that a weekly tai chi exercise class improved depression symptoms in elderly adults. In this study, 112 adults aged 60 or older with major depression were treated with an antidepressant for four weeks. From among these participants, 73 who showed only partial improvement were also randomly assigned to 10 weeks of either a tai chi class or a health education class for two hours a week. The researchers found that among those who participated in tai chi, 94 per cent achieved depression scores of less than 10 on the Hamilton Rating Scale (anything above 10 gets you a diagnosis of depression), with 65 per cent achieving remission (a score of six or less). By comparison, among participants who received health education, 77 per cent achieved scores of 10 or less, with 51 per cent achieving remission. Greater improvements in quality of life, memory and cognition, and overall energy were also seen in the tai chi group. While tai chi is a great system, and beneficial on many levels, I’d be willing to bet that any gentle exercise would produce virtually the same result. And I guess the real moral of that research is that it’s better to get out and do it than to talk about doing it! One final point. Research has confirmed that exercising first thing in the morning has the most benefits. * Michael Ellis is a registered Chinese herbalist in Mt Eliza: www.mtelizaherbal.com.

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The downside of up: the $A’s impact Top tier Australians have rarely had it so good. Dividends keep rolling in and for the first time in a decade the $A is above parity making those trips to Tuscany and New Orleans even more justifiable. “Honestly, we simply had no choice....”

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But for many others the high $A is a pain and a curse. For service exporters like tourism and education and widget exporters with little pricing power a dollar at $1.08 is bad enough, but $1.10-1.15 may be ruinous as rising labour costs and inflation add to the misery. The RBA is even considering more rate hikes. This would lift the $A higher as money flees the almost zero rate environment of the US to lap the cream of our virtually risk free 6 per cent returns. Thank you, Dr Bernanke. Sheltering from the worst effects of this high $A will become increasingly important the longer it stays high and some believe the $A will never slip below parity again. That is arguable, but while the $A stays elevated it will have a big influence on many returns. Few sectors are immune. The banks benefit as they can borrow off-shore more cheaply, but already local savings are so strong this funding issue is receding. On the negative side they may soon face sharp increases in bad debts as dollar exposed businesses shudder and collapse. Certainly off-shore acquisitions become a lot cheaper for our global giants like CSL, but for the likes of Amcor, Brambles, CSR, Boral etc, further expansion is not high on their

Richard Campbell* Stock Analyst

agenda. To the extent that BHP and Rio’s materials exports are protected by the very prices that help to drive the $A higher is all very well, but they are niggardly dividend payers. Others like Incitec Pivot have hedged their off-shore earnings, but as these protections run off, this is only a temporary shelter from the currency hailstones.

Logic also argues for a switch to US shares. Now cheaper in relative terms some are enjoying surging exports. Siemens has just chosen the US as the cheapest place to build its turbines ... yes, Siemens thinks the US is now cheaper than China. The stay-at-home option looks better, but there are relatively few high quality “domestics” with unquestionable dividends. Telstra is edging into that category as its billion dollar make-over program is starting to gain traction. Its mobile and internet revenues are rising while the fixed line revenue decline is slowing. Its badly named

China web-site Soufun has been sold which gives plenty of head room to support the 28c dividend. Telstra even seems well placed whether the NBN succeeds or flops. It will get annual cash injections from rent of the copper network while it exists plus compensation for its appropriation. This cash will allow it to acquire brands and content to drive down the optic fibre pipes. As high speed is no longer a point of difference, the new edge will be content. A more radical strategy is to try to give more weight to companies that have such value upside that the $A makes only a minor impact. Mesoblast enthusiasts shrugged off the $A this last month lifting it 25 per cent as they anticipate massive compensating earnings. Logic also argues for a switch to US shares. Now cheaper in relative terms some are enjoying surging exports. Siemens has just chosen the US as the cheapest place to build its turbines ... yes, Siemens thinks the US is now cheaper than China. But the big question is how long will this pain last? Some say “briefly” as the crisis of US politics, high public debt and falling house prices will combine to create a severe recession and bring our dollar crashing down with it. Maybe, but this ignores China. Far from slowing as it was supposed to, its trade surplus is expanding. The April trade surplus was staggering. Like it or not China has even more cash to modernise every inch of China. That suggests a stronger for longer $A. Disclaimer: The writer holds an indirect interest in Mesoblast. Richard Campbell is Executive Director of Peninsula Capital Management. Tel. 9642 0545. email: rcampbell@peninsulacapital.com.au

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NEWS WHEELS It’s a fairly safe bet that only one car company will celebrate its 60th Anniversary in 2011. Why? Because 60 years ago, in 1941, the world had far more serious issues with which to cope. It was as the manufacturer of a military vehicle that the Jeep marque was born. Jeep vehicles have evolved over the years to the stage where its flagship Grand Cherokee is in the higher-echelon of luxury SUVs. Which is not something that pleases died-in-the-wool Jeep fans, but a necessity in the modern era. The first new vehicle to be released in what will be a busy anniversary year for Jeep is an all-new version of the Grand Cherokee with a new V6 engine, off-road enhancements and very competitive pricing. Perhaps the biggest news with the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is a price list that starts at just $45,000 (plus dealer and government charges). This makes it the cheapest Grand Cherokee ever sold in Australia, as well as the best equipped. While the strong Australian dollar is clearly a factor, there’s also a new-found confidence in the Chrysler organisation following its recent

The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is a luxury cruiser that’s more than capable off-road.

Grand value Cherokee Alistair Kennedy Motoring Journalist

brush with death and its subsequent rescue by Fiat. The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a choice of two petrol engines, an upgraded version of the existing 5.7-litre Hemi V8 and a new 3.6-litre Pentastar V6. A turbo-diesel will be added later this year. Both engines are mated to five-speed automatic transmissions. Maximum towing capacity is 2268 kg with the V6 and 3500 kg with the V8. The 2011 Grand Cherokee comes in three variants:

Laredo, Limited and Overland. Laredo is available only with the new 3.6-litre V6 engine; Limited with both V6 and Hemi V8; and Overland only with the Hemi. The most significant change is the addition of Jeep’s new Quadra-Lift air suspension which provides five different ride heights, two above and two below the Grand Cherokee’s standard ground clearance of 205 mm. The two raised settings lift the vehicle by either 33 mm (Off Road

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1) or 66 mm (Off Road 2) depending on the difficulty of the terrain; while the two lowered settings are Aero Mode, down by 13 mm for improved cruising performance and lower fuel consumption, and Park Mode

(down 38 mm) for ease of entry/exit and to assist in roof rack loading. We were able to test all of these 4WD systems, as well as Hill Descent Control, during our recent review of the new Grand

Cherokee in north-east Tasmania and included some quite challenging off-road sections, one over a rugged and rocky bush track, the other in soft sand dunes. The big Jeep coped well with all conditions.

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