A message from Jens Goennemann
This month is a special edition to look westward – a region of Australia that is leading the way in leveraging its manufacturing capability for future prosperity.
Recently, on 16 July, AMGC’s partnership with the Western Australian Government, the Wind Energy Manufacturing Co-Investment Program, made its first co-investment announcement – just six-months after the fund was launched.
Under the initiative, Australian Winders was awarded $488,204 to diversify and automate its electric motor coil line. This investment allows the company to lift its throughput and to seize new opportunities as a wind energy industry supplier.
Australian Winders has an impressive heritage in service and support for industrial assets, mainly within mining and energy. During the Covid era, it saw an opportunity to begin coil manufacture where it has seen success yet faced against capacity limitations.
Over the next five years, it expects to gain an extra 25 employees and generate $17.8 million in additional revenues, as well as to upskill 20 current employees, you can read the full project profile here.
This is good news for a variety of reasons. One is that we are backing a company with a niche offering that is world-class. Better not cheaper, as we like to say.
Two is that it’s an example of what must be done elsewhere in the nation: a company using its already existing capability to diversify into new but adjacent market opportunities. A tangible example of how to lift a nation’s economic complexity by making realistic-sized jumps within its Product Space, in the Harvard Growth Lab’s terms.
Three is that it’s a privilege for AMGC to be a part of the forward-looking efforts of a State that, despite propelling the nation’s high living standards through mineral exports, appreciates that the future must involve economic diversification and improved value-adding.
There are growing signs that our ‘lucky country’s’ luck is dissolving. As a Bloomberg article put it last week: “The lack of any clear successor to iron ore’s economic heft is leaving a hole that Australia is unsure how to fill.”
However, Western Australia is on the case. If you have a look at all the different States and Territories’ Industry Plans / Manufacturing Plans / Blueprints, there is one distinct difference to the plan called Made in WA: The Westerners have defined a pack of actions and put a budget line against it. In other words, their plan has the means and doesn’t stop short with just ideas.
Finally, I would like to congratulate Ellen McGarrity as AMGC’s new State Director for Western Australia. Ellen has been with our organisation since almost the beginning and will continue to do a fantastic job for both the AMGC team and our manufacturing community in the west.