Scaffolding The World
There is a saying in our company: "Scaffold The World".
It started from an idea back in 1991 when I thought I could conquer the world with my brand of Scaffold.
People who know me, know that I am a passionate man and that applies to just about everything I do. Most of all I am passionate about my work and my manufactured range of scaffold products. You could say that I get very excited when the sniff of an order comes my way, however on the same token I get equally upset when the same order goes sailing on by.
Back in 1991 I announced to the world that I was going to sell Aluminium Scaffold to the Building Industry in Hong Kong. My colleagues laughed at me and even Austrade said that I would have to paint my scaffold green (the same color as Bamboo) if I was to even get noticed.
Well all I can say is, just as well Columbus didn’t listen to his critics who insisted that the earth was flat. He followed his dream and discovered the Americas. I am only a small man when compared to Columbus, but I also had the dream to scaffold the world.
The long and the short of the 1991 story was, I did go to Hong Kong and I did sell Aluminium Scaffold by the container full and yes it was the realization that my dreams can come true. Some would say I was lucky and some would say, “the harder you work the luckier you get”. Personally I think it was a bit of both. Luck mixed with persistence and hard work.
From 1991 we faced the worst economic times that I have ever known. I lost my house to the bank and I started to appreciate the feeling of poverty. However through all of that I managed to keep my business and slowly I rebuilt my financial situation. I kept building my Aluminium Scaffold and eventually ended up where I am today.
Our Aluminium Mobile scaffold towers in my opinion and the opinion of a great deal of national and independent Rental Companies, is possibly the strongest and best designed scaffolds ever produced. Originally our brand of scaffold was designed by GKN and manufactured by KF (Kwik Form) Manufacturing in Victoria.However cutting a long story short, I became a manufacturer of this brand of scaffold and so began thelong road of turning this ugly duckling
into one of the most used scaffolds in Australia.
In 2002 nearly all my Australian Suppliers including my extrusion suppliers and casting manufacturers came to me saying that if I wanted them to maintain the prices for my extrusion and castings then I would have to accept products from them that were to be made in China, even my ply came from Indonesia. Well I copped this for about a year and then I said to Braden (my Nephew and general manager) “mate we are going to China”.
We did and now we are super competitive, even to the point that the Old Company saying ‘Scaffold the World’ is truer today than what it was back in 1991. Every computer monitor in our company now has a screen saver “Scaffold the World” Over the past twelve months we have been able to get sales into New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and even some limited sales into America the Mecca of Hire.
Well all these sales into other countries paled into insignificance last week when Braden and I attended Malbex in Malaysia (Malaysian Building Exhibition) and then Rentex (European Rental Association Expo) in Holland. Malbex was a little mild however we managed to get a commitment from several large access rental companies, that they would buy our scaffold product in container lots. Both Braden and I were very satisfied with our efforts and things seem to be heading in the right direction, similar to what we had been experiencing throughout the rest of Asia.
Well straight after Malbex, we were back on a plane, headed for Holland and Rentex. Head on into a feeding frenzy of orders from more companies in the world than we could have ever imagined. Day one at the show was for setting up and day two was for admiring our stand (all 18sqm) and getting terrified by the opposition with the size of their stands and all the polished tube, at one point I wondered “what are we doing here?”
I was surrounded by my staff who looked to me for inspiration, totally daunted by the size of the opposition in Europe. Then the genius kicked in and I started to realize that although the size of the opposition and the shine of the opposition and the established brands already in Europe were working against us, we had forgotten we still had the best Scaffold for the rental Industry. What had made our scaffold great in Australia were still all the reasons why our scaffold would be great throughout Europe.
All the Opposition in Europe had 1.6mm wall tube, ours was 2.6mm, making it stronger and we even give a life time warrantee on our frames. No more bent braces. Our tube OD was 48.6mm, the same as standard scaffold tube, and adapts to all the standard scaffold fittings. The opposition was 50.8mm and adapted to nothing. Every frame of ours was a base frame or a building frame or a guard rail frame all the others have to have special guard rail frames or dedicated base frames. Our scaffold could deliver complete utilization but none of the others could do that.
Quickly I got our staff to print up little banners and place them all over our display on frames on braces every where, pointing out the advantages of our scaffold. “2.6mm wall thickness not 1.6”, “All tube 48.6mmOD - adapts to all standard scaffold fittings”, “Every frame is a base frame or a building frame or a guard rail frame” etc etc etc…
And so this was our plan of attack against the giants of Europe and boy did it work. Scared like little boys we stood there waiting for the show to open, I had rehearsed all the staff to learn the advantages of our product, I could do no more and then they started walking by. What a wonderful experience, we had owner operators, we had huge international companies, we had people from all over the world come by and they loved our scaffold. Within an hour we had orders from Malta to Finland. We had promises of containers as far away as Iceland, Denmark.We had sales in Holland and England. Like a dream come true surely now we are starting to “Scaffold the World”.
If you haven’t experienced the benefits of our Scaffold products just call us on + 61 2 96480111 and share the experience with us.
Maurie Abbott
