Century Engineering is a traditional componentry maker that is successfully diversifying its business. It has gone from a company with a narrow market focus to
one with its sights set on national expansion.
“Century is now breaking new ground in its involvement with cutting-edge projects across key growth industries,” Managing Director David Heaslip said.
The company’s markets now include power, defence, water, mining and quarrying and specialised outsourced manufacturing. In five years, Century has more than doubled its workforce and now employs 85 people in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.
ICN in South Australia has worked closely with Century to enable it to identify emerging market opportunities and source suppliers. The portfolio of Century’s work is broad, from assembling
Victor lawnmower engines to participation in the Air Warfare Destroyer project.
Mr Heaslip said the company’s increased capabilities come from investment and acquisitions. This included the purchase of Sydney-based water technology and solutions provider Liquitek and most recently Priority Engineering Services.
“This acquisition further enhanced our automotive, mining and defence expertise,” Mr Heaslip said. “We plan to expand further into the oil and gas sector across South Australia and Queensland as well as widen our reach in power and rail.”
“The defence sector and in particular ASC has been a bedrock for our investment strategy. Having such a high quality, long- term customer has been great support whilst we grow into other industries. We take the extremely high-quality, technical and cost requirements from ASC and apply them very successfully in other sectors.”
“Companies that quickly adapt to the evolving market conditions have a bright future. It’s not only about being cost conscious to compete with cheap imports, but continually looking ahead for
growth.” South Australian ICN General Manager Darren Hill said “Century was a perfect example of a local business that has successfully tapped into the expertise and network connections that ICN offers.”
“Over time, ICN has nominated Century for over 100 different opportunities,” Mr Hill said.
“We have assisted the company to diversify into different sectors by providing information on projects or contacts. Every member of our team has at some stage been involved with Century. It’s been a trusted and successful long-standing relationship.”
