By CASEY NEILL
A DANDENONG South manufacturer is branching out to stay in the game.
The Ruson Fire Division of Power Industries Australia is adding a service division and has received support from City of Greater Dandenong to make it happen.
Ruson, located in Mark Anthony Drive, was among five businesses successful in this year’s instalment of the council’s Business Grants Program that was announced on 25 March.
Each was reimbursed with up to $8000 and received about $2000 in advice from the Small Business Mentoring Service.
Ruson managing director Scott Lacey said the cash helped to fit out office space in a warehouse in Swift Way, Dandenong South.
“We’re an importer-slash-manufacturer,” he said.
“We import a range of products that go into the fire pump industry and that’s what we’ve done for some time.
“We made the decision last year to look at getting into the service side of the industry, just to grow, evolve.
“So that’s what we’re setting up the other factory down there for.”
Mr Lacey has started the ball rolling on an alliance with Ruson’s biggest customer, which is located in New South Wales.
“They’ve got a presence in Melbourne. They’ve got a lot of knowledge in the industry that I’d like to try and leverage off,” he said.
“We’ve got a small customer base but they’re regular. It’s a bit of a niche industry.”
Ruson imports the diesel engines it uses.
“They’re about 70 per cent complete. We add the other 30 per cent,” he said.
Mr Lacey said it would cost $260 to produce an entire product locally, compared to $90 to partially import.
“It’s just a no-brainer. And the quality of finish that we get is exactly what we do locally,” he said.
“I’d love to go and build it locally because there’s advantages with that – just-in-time delivery and things like that.
“But when you’re talking 30 per cent off the end price, it’s massive.”
He said it wasn’t just Australia’s labour costs sending businesses searching overseas, and gave importing a container as an example.
“I could have it at the wharf from the depot in China cheaper than what it is for me to send some stuff up to Queensland,” he said.
“I can get a sticker overseas for just cents, and over here I’m paying $1-plus.
“They’re the things I think that fail to be potentially acknowledged. It’s all the little things that add to it. You deal with it.
“The service side, for us, is a good fit because you can’t import that.”
Ruson started about five years ago.
“We started doing water pumps, industrial equipment,” Mr Lacey said.
“We had a customer speak to us one day and say ‘can you build me a motor to this standard?’.
“We said ‘we’ll give it a shot’.
“Through a whole lot of trial and error we finally got there and now 90 per cent of our work would be fire pump related.”
Mr Lacey said the company did “a fair bit with the mines” but reached a fork in the road and had to choose between the mining or fire pump tracks. He’s thankful they chose pumps.
“It’s been very dry up north,” he said.
“When the rain stopped no one needed pumps. And if it did rain a little bit there was plenty of product floating around that they could hire or buy.”
Fire pumps provide month-by-month business. Ruson employs seven people and is about to add an eighth.
“We’ve grown again this year,” Mr Lacey said.
“I’m not trying to take the world over. I’d rather just grow incrementally and I think that’s important – just to maintain quality, maintain products, not try to grow too quickly because you can fall in a hole that way.”
City of Greater Dandenong’s Business Grants Program is designed to encourage business growth, attract investment and generate jobs.
The Journal supports the program and will profile each of the successful businesses.
