The COVID pandemic was a challenge for many Australian businesses. For some, it meant focusing on a new product or service (hand sanitiser and masks, anyone?), while for others it meant finding Australian supply chains when travel bans hit imports.
For Indigenous-owned and Supply Nation Certified company, The Cryogenics Group, it meant an unplanned cross-country move and a whole new market.
Director Marcia Edwards explains how the company, established in Queensland in 1993, ended up relocating its head office to Perth in the middle of a pandemic.
“It was a strange series of events that led us to come here,” she said.
“It happened during COVID, when there were the different border closures. We had a really small team here in Perth. There was just too much work happening for the amount of people we had, and we couldn’t get anyone over to train anyone new.
“There was a situation where the borders opened for a short time. We basically quickly came over the borders, and we got a little bit stuck. But it ended up working out great. It’s opened a whole new market for us.”
Marcia’s parents started The Cryogenics Group as a small business, delivering micro amounts of liquid nitrogen and a limited number of compressed gas cylinders, primarily to medical clinics.
Although still a relatively small team, with offices in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne, the company has significantly expanded its scope of work. It now specializes in bulk cylinder distribution, road tanker maintenance, and static tank pressure vessel maintenance.
“That kind of happened because we saw a gap in during COVID, where usually this work is sent off overseas to Malaysia, and that couldn’t happen with all the border closures,” Marcia said
“Companies started to look for someone local that could do this work.”
“We realised that we’ve always done this work on our own vessels, we already have this knowledge. We just haven’t ever sold the knowledge to anyone else.
“We just naturally started moving into that work. And we’re really finding that there was a big gap in Australia. A lot of stuff was coming from overseas, which means long wait times and is super expensive.
“We operate a fully equipped fabrication workshop right here in Perth, which allows us to manufacture a wide range of equipment in-house. This means we can offer quicker turnaround times and get what our clients need out to site fast.”
Representatives from The Cryogenics Groups recently attended a trade show in Malaysia, with the support of ICN WA and Austrade.
“It was just like it was mind boggling. We’ve been to a lot of trade shows here in Australia, but this was definitely next level. It was a multi-story trade show event that went for three days,” Marcia said.
The opportunity to be part of the trade show delegation came thanks to having a profile on Gateway by ICN.
“What was most important to us was that ICN could help us get the connections,” Marcia said.
“So, we applied for that mission, and were accepted along with a handful of other companies.”
While at the trade show, representatives from both ICN and Austrade made introductions to other stall holders and helped The Cryogenics Group network with both potential suppliers and customers.
This included at an event with Malaysian multinational oil and gas company, Petronas, where Marcia and her team learned about how to get registered and licenced to work with this major player.
Marcia has nothing but praise for the ICN WA team, saying they are proactive and supportive.
The Cryogenics Group is now focusing building up the fabrication and maintenance side of the company, as well as looking at overseas markets.
For more information, go to www.thecryogroup.com.au.
