By CASEY NEILL
THE Casey Cardinia Region is poised for a manufacturing boom.
Business director of Berwick component manufacturer Australian Precision Technologies (APT) predicts “exciting times ahead” for the region.
That’s a view echoed by Casey Cardinia Business Group chair Ian Ash.
In a Q&A interview with Grow Casy Cardinia, Mr Ash says the region is on the cusp of a growth spurt.
“I don’t think we have reached anywhere near to where we are going to be,” he said. “The best is still to come – by far.
“The region has huge potential and there is a great deal of pride and innovation in the business community.”
APT, which started in 1992, is in line now for its best year in 24 years,” says Mr Weinzierl.
“The last two years have been challenging,” he said.
“We used to be repetition, high volume automotive.”
Now the focus is advanced manufacturing – precision, small-run value for multiple customers.
“Advanced manufacturing equals sustainable business,” Mr Weinzierl said.
“The growth industries that we’re focused on are aerospace and defence.
“That’s where to make money.”
He said that money went back into innovation and employment.
“With government support, investment in technology and commercialisation to market, we’ve got opportunities to basically go from a small business to a medium enterprise,” he said.
“There’s huge potential.”
And that potential extends to new manufacturers eyeing Casey and Cardinia for new facilities.
“There will be a huge growth in setting up businesses here because it’s all new,” Mr Weinzierl said.
“There’s not a lot of it – in Casey there is, in Cardinia it’s growing.”
He said the councils were making setting up “a fairly simple process”.
“The best bit is we’ve gone through the infrastructure challenges and now we’ve got a process,” he said.
“I think there’s some exciting times ahead.
“There are good opportunities.”
Mr Weinzierl pointed to Pakenham, Officer and Berwick’s soon-to-be-closed Monash University site as key opportunities.
“We’re working with the site there at Monash Uni,” he said.
“We want to turn that into an advanced manufacturing RND (research and development) centre and we’re already talking with Casey about doing that.”
He said manufacturers could connect with local counterparts to build consortiums, and the workforce was available, too.
“The current automotive supply chain, there’s a lot of people that travel from Casey Cardinia to Port Melbourne, Altona,” he said.
“We need to stop them going down the M1 because it’s disastrous and we need to build the infrastructures so we keep them here so they’re travelling 10 to 15minutes for work.”
South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) executive officer Adrian Boden said Casey and Cardinia were part of the wider ‘manufacturing zone’ and within minutes of any supply chain need.
“That supply chain factor I think has got to be sold more by the councils,” he said.
“And that supply chain factor should be ‘you are in the manufacturing zone, so put your factory here and your access is to all of this and beyond’.
“It doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, you’re going to have that supply chain here.”
From biomedical to plastics, chemicals, vehicles, electronics and more, Mr Boden said it was all available “at no more than a half-hour drive”.
“Manufacturing is still growing, so there’s still an opportunity,” he said.
“Casey and Cardinia … they’ve got land.”
