By CASEY NEILL
TRANSGLAZE isn’t daunted by cheap imports.
The Dandenong South mass transit window company has been competing globally since Robert Giannotti and Darren Laidler established it in 2007.
They felt there was a gap in the market for a window glazing service for the transport industry, and their hunch has paid off.
TransGlaze won the 2012 Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Manufacturing Award, and was last week inducted into the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame.
The honour is reserved for companies that have displayed a sustained contribution to manufacturing excellence over the past five years.
Mr Giannotti and Mr Laidler have about 22 staff, manufacturing glass for buses, trams and ferries and export to Austria, the Czech Republic, the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, North America, Canada and China.
Mr Giannotti said competing with imports was about knowing your niche capabilities.
“It’s no use us going to China and competing on 10,000 unit builds,” he said.
“But hey – they need 300 of these specific-made windows. Other players are not interested in that, or they’re not geared for that.
“To scale down from building 10,000 windows in a month to 300 is painful for them.”
Mr Laider said TransGlaze was always competing against “the cheap price from China”.
“So it’s very important that we’re highly innovative in how we go about making something,” he said.
“The real formula for success is that key word, innovation.
“If you can continually innovate all the time you stand a very good chance of staying competitive.”
TransGlaze invests more than 10 per cent of its turnover every year in research and development and innovation.
“It’s a lot of money that comes out of profit that goes back into the business,” he said.
Accountants have told the pair they’d be better off buying investment properties.
“But when you’re driven to something and you believe in something it’s very hard to say ‘I think I’ll just starve it of any opportunity’,” Mr Laidler said.
“It’s like a baby. You’ve got to keep feeding it all the time with love and with attention and with care because that’s what grows it.
“It will grow with nurturing and it will starve if it’s ignored.”
Mr Laidler said train and bus builders were always looking for the next design “because that’s what sells”. They’re looking to take weight out – the lighter the vehicle is, the less fuel it will use.
“In the old days we made windows thicker and thicker,” he said.
“They’d withstand anything, but they weighed tonnes.
“We’re forever trying to lighten the glass, make it stronger, make it more competitive.”
Using local content is a priority for TransGlaze.
“We probably average about 90 per cent local content in everything that we do,” Mr Laidler said.
“And of that local content, at least half would be in the Greater Dandenong area.”
Mr Giannotti said they believed in the supply chain and business partnering.
“We’re only as good as our supply stream,” he said.
“The first priority for this company has always been Dandenong, Victoria, Australia, then if we’re forced to, we’ll look overseas.
“In an era where all we’re seeing is floods and floods of imports, there are a lot of good things we can do in this country. People have got to believe in it.”
TransGlaze also believes in its people.
“We drive it, but without our culture, without our workers, without their commitment to care and quality we wouldn’t exist,” Mr Giannotti said.
“We’re a pretty tight bunch. A lot of our people have been with us right through.”
