Manufacturing Excellence Laminex Australia brings local manufacturing back Manufacturers’ Monthly throws a spotlight on Laminex Australia’s very first manufacturing plant and how it made a monumental change to secure future success for the company, in a chat with its general manager of Operations, Graham Andrew.
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PANNING 85 years of history, Laminex Australia is a manufacturer of highpressure laminate, compact laminate and wet-area panelling, decorated MDF used for cabinetry doors, raw particleboard and MDF. With multiple manufacturing plants across Australia, the company’s original manufacturing plant was located in Cheltenham, about 18km south of the Melbourne CBD. It was here that Laminex Australia became the only producer of thin high pressure and compact laminates in Australia and New Zealand – which is still true today. The Cheltenham plant has been in operation for almost 70 years, according to general manager for Operations, Graham Andrew. “The plant at Cheltenham was built just after the second World War
in the late 1940s, early 50s,” he said. “The equipment has been upgraded over the years but it is at the centre of the history of the company. Laminex started with the product that’s made at that plant, so it really was the height and founding location of the company.” “And since then, the origins of the company have become part of our big growth story.”
Overcoming adversity But several years ago, in 2019, the Cheltenham manufacturing plant was placed in the black. Operating on a limited three and a half days of production each week with 60 employees working across two shifts, the volume of their production was dropping fast. “If you roll the tape forward a
few years, there was a very high possibility that the plant would have to close,” Andrew said. “It would’ve been 60 jobs lost in Melbourne. So, we had to make a conscious decision to turn that around.” This started with insourcing a product that was being made in China and imported. This was compact laminate, a 13mm thick and heavy product that’s often a material used for toilet partitions in spaces like hotels and airports. “To get the plant up to 3 shifts and get some capacity and get some momentum going, we decided to make that product locally,” Andrew said. “We did a whole lot of product development work, and made certain we could do it, then included a $5 million investment into a finishing line, which basically
trims the product and gets it looking good and ready to be dispatched to customers.” This new investment was in a trimming machine which has the ability to finish the compact laminate after being pressed, creating a more presentable product for Laminex Australia’s customers. Once that investment had been made, the volume was brought back into Australia and the shifts were able to increase. This created 20 new jobs at the Cheltenham manufacturing plant. The demand for the products then grew slightly more, which created more employment opportunities. “In August last year we put a fourth shift on and another 18 people were hired,” Andrew said. “Overall, that’s about 38 extra Laminex Australia’s original manufacturing plant has become key to its growth.
44 APRIL 2022 Manufacturers’ Monthly
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