Export award for extrusions

Press, 9 April 1981, Page 23

Export award for extrusions

Wellington's howling southerlies, the biting frosts and snow of the South Island, and Northland’s dank humidity have helped an Aucklandbased company win the Trade Promotion Council's export award. Comalco Extrusions. Ltd. of Mount Wellington has received the award in a presentation by the Undersecretary of Trade and Industry. Mr Keith (K. R.) Allen in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the national export drive. The company's aluminium extrusions for architectural joinery chiefly- comprise windows, doors, louvres, curtain walls and shopfronts for high rise buildings. “New Zealand is spread over a wide range of climates and this has helped us to design quality products suitable for each market." said ~ the general manager (Mr J. P. Williams). Aluminium windows designed for the Beehive and other large buildings in Wellington must be able to withstand abnormally high winds and driving rain. Windows and doors designed for a variety of buildings in Christchurch, Mount Ruapehu. Auckland or Whangarei must tolerate different extremes in weather and air moisture content ranging from hot, dry conditions to freezing snowstorms. “Because of such extremes

in weather within the country we have been able to develop products which can be exported anywhere in the world — regardless of the prevailing climatic conditions.” says Mr Williams. The company began exporting in 1977 when its goods sold overseas were worth a modest $67,800. In the past four years exports have climbed to become a multi-million dollar trade. Exports rose 119.5 per cent in 1980. over the 1979 calendar year and now account for 24 per cent of the firm's total production. Comalco Extrusions is now exporting to Australia, the Pacific Islands, South East Asia, Pakistan, and the Middle East. The company was set up as a joint venture between Comalco, Ltd, and Alex Harvey Industries, Ltd, in April, 1970. with a view to supplying the New Zealand market with aluminium extrusions. By the mid-1970s economic forecasts predicted a slump in the building industry and the firm was faced with a 15 per cent drop in turnover and the prospect of retrenching its staff. “Instead we employed Brian Bluett as export manager in 1977 to research foreign markets with a view to expanding our sales overseas,” says Mr Williams. Government tax incentives

also encouraged the company to look further afield. A problem faced by Comalco Extrusions was a limited market in the Pacific (apart from filling product gaps) due to the presence of aluminium extrusion plants owned by the parent company in Australia and joint venture plans in the Philippines. Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The professional manner in which the Auckland company set about winning export orders is typified by the way it tackled the Singapore market. The export 1 drive was started by the firm displaying its products at a trade exhibition in Singapore in 1977. The trade fair was followed, up with an extensive survey of the aluminium market in Singapore and discussions with government and private architects, joinery stockists, and manufacturers. “We quickly established that there was tremendous potential in the building trade for our products, and particularly with government bodies like the Singapore Housing Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority," says Mr Williams. All these bodies are responsible for building major projects in the form of multi-

storey flats for housing, shops, offices and schools. The company then made representations to a large window manufacturer in Singapore to discuss the possible supply of jointly-de-signed extrusions from New Zealand. It was agreed that Comalco Extrusions should first design aluminium win-

dows that could pass Singapore's newly developed standards requirements. After two years at the drawing board, intensive research. frequent correspondence, and numerous trips to Singapore by Mr Bluett, the finished product was given a government test certificate and automatically became eligible for government contracts.

Since then the company has exported more than $500,000 worth of extrusions to the Singapore market. Comalco Extrusions also plans to expand its exports in more specialist equipment — using aluminium to produce such products as airline and sea freight containers, and commercial airline, inflight trolleys.