Shailer Park, QLD – July 24, 2017:
This week Aqua Cooler, Australia’s leading water cooler & chiller manufacturer, announces its plans to relocate its production facility and administration office to Queensland.
Glenn Honey, the CEO of Aqua Cooler commented “we acquired the company just over a year ago and have now gained a strong understanding of the business and the markets it supports. With growth in mind and the need to improve the company’s competitiveness and overall market penetration we have decided to establish a new state-of-the-art manufacturing and marketing facility in Brisbane.
The experience of the preceding year presented the new management team at Aqua Cooler with both significant challenges and a strong learning curve. As a result, we have identified the need to relocate, reposition and refocus our business model and manufacturing systems to meet local market demands for both custom solutions as well as standardised products in high demand routine capacity ranges.”
A new business model which splits the business and its production and marketing activities into two definitive product and market focus areas has been developed. This delineation of focus markets will see production of the industrial products range offering which includes chillers, heat pumps and CRAC systems located separately to water cooler products. Industrial products will be manufactured on the south side of Brisbane at a new factory site in Meadowbrook. This location was chosen due to its proximity to key transport, logistics and infrastructure as well suppliers for its easy access to service providers and a pool of highly skilled trades.
The water cooler products range, which targets consumer; commercial and retail market segments, will be based at Shailer Park approximately 4 kilometers from the new Meadowbrook factory. Its infrastructure and support facilities have been matched to optimise and leverage synergies with local resources and endowments which are key to the needs of its business and market activities.
The move is expected to be completed by the end of August and the new plant for the industrial products range offerings is expected to be back at full strength production between late October and early November. In the domestic, commercial and retail water cooler area sales, supply; service and technical support will not be interrupted at all.
In regards to the industrial product portfolio, CEO Glenn Honey says he “expects the move will see a strong surge in sales and market penetration across the business due to a combination of lower manufacturing costs, improved facilities, the introduction of new product lines and an across the business boost in aftermarket service revenues. In the domestic, commercial and retail water cooler business areas we are expecting to see very strong growth also for a raft of reasons.”
ABOUT AQUA COOLER
Aqua Cooler was formed in 1994 as an amalgamation of three like-minded companies with histories dating back to the 1950’s. The first company, Blackmore and Singleman, was founded in the 1950’s by Jim Blackmore and focused on producing air conditioning and water chilling solutions for the train industry. The second, Sam Hort, was a small water cooler company purchased by Barry Blackmore in 1979. Sam Hort operated under this name for a number of years until Blackmore and Singleman relocated under the same roof and Aqua Cooler was formed.
Over the life time of the company, Aqua Cooler has reinvented itself over and over again keeping up with changes in the market and continually innovating and expanding into new areas of business. The core values and skill set remains mostly unchanged but the end product and use-case continues to change and evolve alongside the world.
Today, Aqua Cooler boasts an impressive install base with extensive reach into the international market, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong. A critical part of the company’s success is its embedded technical knowledge and advanced engineering competencies made possible by its passionate and experienced team. Aqua Cooler has been and will continue to be Australia’s largest and leading water cooler and industrial process water chiller manufacturer. It is proudly Australian owned and looks to the future with great anticipation for the challenges it will face and the endless opportunities to expand and grow its already world class expertise and capabilities.
Should you require further information, please contact Kane Wallmann by phone on +61 7 3387 0424 or by e-mail at [email protected]