A bond for excellence

Vawdrey Australia has a solid reputation for exceeding expectations when it comes to delivering state-of-the-art trailer equipment. For almost two decades it has turned to Capral for unmatched aluminium solutions.

Capral commenced operations in Australia in 1936 and is now known as one of Australia’s largest manufacturers and distributors of aluminium profiles. The company has extrusion manufacturing facilities in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, which has allowed it to supply world class products within short lead times.

It also has an extensive network of added value facilities which can supply aluminium extrusions while providing customers with a streamlined final product. These services, including knurling, anodising, power coating, drilling and precision cutting, are designed to meet the needs of customers like Vawdrey Australia which operates at high production rates.

Vawdrey was founded by Mick Vawdrey in 1974. He has gradually grown the business into one of Australia’s most prominent trailer builders while managing to retain local manufacturing. This, Mick says, has been key to the business’ survival.

“Being an Australian manufacturer means everything to us,” he says. “Everything is about quality. We buy the best. If we can buy it Australian, we will –and I think it’s paid off over the years.”

While Mick’s son and Director of the business, Paul Vawdrey, guides the company through Australia’s next generation of transport, the founder is still very much involved in the production process. To this day, Mick still checks every trailer combination before it leaves the yard to ensure customers are receiving the renowned quality Vawdrey has been known for since he opened its doors.

“Everything revolves around the quality, and I stress that,” he says.

For over 20 years, Capral has been supplying Vawdrey with quality aluminium options through a series of combinations. Mick explains that every aluminum roof on a Vawdrey trailer is made with Capral product, along with all of the aluminium extrusions on Vawdrey’s dry freight and refrigerated trailers.

“Everybody knows that our product’s better than our opposition and it’s got to be, and that’s why we use Capral’s aluminium,” Mick says.

“They’re working with everything. If we need something special, they do it for us. Delivery is on time all the time, which makes it handy because a lot of these trailers have got to be finished at a certain date because they’re replacing another one that contractor that had beforehand. Because of this, we depend on Capral just as much as our blokes.

“We’ve had a pretty good relationship, and you can see by the quality of the product that it’s second to none.”

Mick says aluminium is a good fit for Vawdrey’s semi-trailers because it looks great, it doesn’t deteriorate, and it’s light but still very strong.

The process of constructing aluminium panels is more precise these days. Vawdrey has its own extrusions for everything, meaning each component is drawn up before it is produced. From there, Capral creates a mock-up of what each panel will look like and sends it back to the team to double check that everything fits in before precision cutting and drilling is completed.

This approach allows Vawdrey to produce the end product twice as quickly, as prototypes are ready before all of the parts are even ordered.

“It’s a good working relationship, and we’ve found over the years that if you have a good working relationship it helps with everything,” Mick says. “Capral has always been really good with that, so there’s no need for us to change or look at anybody else. We are quite happy with how everything’s been going.”