By Casey Neill
An egg and bacon breakfast launched Thyssenkrupp Materials Australia’s arrival in Dandenong.
The aluminium wholesaler officially opened its doors on Monday 7 November at its first foray into Victoria.
“It’s a pretty important area for us,” general manager Brad Foster said.
“It’s heavily involved in the manufacturing sector that we target.
“You’ve got your engineering and high-tech industries that make finished components with our aluminium products.
“We’re a wholesaler that stocks certified aluminium rolling and extruded products.
“We’ll go out and source the material from the best mills in the world, we’ll bring that in and then we have plant machinery on-site which we can value-add to our product range.”
The company’s customers come from the general engineering, high-tech, defence, aerospace, motor sport, mining, and hydraulic industries.
“If you’re an engineering customer and you call and say you want 50 millimetre thick aluminium plates in the 5000 series and you need them to be cut to 250mm by 250mm and need 100 pieces, we’ll cut it to size,” he said.
Mr Foster said the site was about 1200 square metres, housed state-of-the art equipment including a CNC plate and band saw, and had five staff.
“We wanted to support our loyal customer base in Victoria,” he said.
“We want to offer them better lead times and the ability to come and pick up from the site.
“It’s more trying to offer cost-savings to our Victorian customers on shipping.”
The company has about 480 locations in more than 40 countries and specialises in materials distribution, logistics and services.
Last year, Thyssenkrupp celebrated its 150th year in Australia and has about 800 employees in more than 20 locations around the country.
The diversified industrial group has strengths in materials and a growing share of capital goods and services businesses.
