COMPANY PROFILE

Westaflex Australia Pty / Ltd was founded in a small factory of 5000 square feet in West Heidelberg, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in March 1974 by Ed Sterling.

Westaflex started with an aluminium, semi flexible duct machine and a small sheet metal shop. With quality products and good service Westaflex was soon outgrowing its original establishment and moved into larger premises. In 1981 Westaflex opened a second outlet in Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia and then in 1982 opened a third in Revesby, Sydney, Australia.

It wasn’t long before the customer base had grown considerably and the demand for quality product meant that Westaflex would have to move into larger premises again. A factory was found in the immediate area of 24,000 square feet and a move took place in 1983.

In 1983 Westaflex started to manufacture fully flexible ducting that used a metal rib for strength and a foil / polyester blend fabric for flexibility. This gave improved performance, space savings and cost savings and helped speed up installations thus reducing costs to the purchaser.

This product proved to be a great success and demand was high. Westaflex was soon forced to open more outlets so expansion into Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, Australia soon followed.

Again with the expansion of sales outlets came the necessity to expand the manufacturing. After looking around for a few months a factory became available, again in the immediate area. This was purchased and a move began. It was over 65,000 square feet in size and in the words of Ed Sterling, said, “how will we ever fill this place?”

In 1989 Westaflex purchased its first injection moulding machine and started to produce its range of plastic diffusion called CD 2000. Shortly after the first blow moulder was purchased. By the end of 1991 Westaflex had a range of injection moulders from 100 to 350 tonne capacity. These machines manufacture a wide range of ceiling diffusion like the Univent, Unijet, CD 2000, Spidervent etc.

We also expanded to two 250 litre blow moulders equal to the largest in Australia (at the time) which produce our poly branch take off’s, “Y”s, floor boots, cushion boxes, zone dampers, etc.Ed’s hard work and dedication to improving the HVAC industry was rewarded with the Australian Design Award council recognising Westaflex with SEVEN Australian Design Awards for its flexible duct range and the CD 2000 ceiling diffuser. Westaflex was, and still is, the only company ever to win this type of prestigious award for flexible ducting.

On July 21st, 1992 Ed Sterling passed away.

Ed’s wife Elizabeth and her two sons Paul and Michael took over the running of the business. Elizabeth had been involved in the running of the business up until 1987, Paul worked in the sales department at the Mt Waverley location for five years until 1991 and Michael had completed his toolmaking apprenticeship with the company early in 1992. Their new roles being Elizabeth, Managing Director and Paul and Michael as Company Directors was always going to be a new challenge.

In 1994 Westaflex opened outlets in Dubbo, NSW and Essendon, Victoria, Australia.

In 1995 Westaflex suffered a major setback with a large factory fire in its plastic fabrication plant. One blow moulder and one injection moulder were destroyed as well as other machinery being severely damaged. Also a section of over 10,000 square feet of factory was destroyed. It was therefore necessary to find a new home for the plastics plant and it was fortunate that a 25,000 square foot factory became available across the road from the main manufacturing plant.

1996 saw Elizabeth Sterling win the Business Woman Of The Year (Victorian section) and come runner-up in the national competition.

In 1997 Westaflex opened its tenth outlet in Newcastle, NSW, Australia and the movement of the Head Office Sales of 11,000 square feet into a larger warehouse of 23,000 square feet.

Westaflex opened its latest outlet in Penrith, NSW, Australia in 1999 to bring the total number of outlets to eleven across the nation, covering all areas whether rural or suburban.

In August 1999 the company was awarded The Most Successful Family Business Award (Victoria) and was runner-up in the overall Australia award which was won by a fifth generation company of 100 years standing.Also in 1999, Westaflex set out to manufacture a range of product that would all comply to the AS 4254 standard. By the end of 1999 Westaflex had come out with two new products, Unilok FR1 and Unilok S. Unilok FR1 was the first flexible duct able to pass the AS 4254 test criteria and be made from materials that were identifiable and manufactured 100% in Australia.

In 2000, Westaflex entered Unilok into The Australia Design Award and at the presentations in 2001, Unilok was awarded an Australian Design Mark for “outstanding product design”. Unilok was also awarded an Austrade backed Consensus Manufacturing Award. This brings the total number of awards won by Westaflex to nine.In 2000 Westaflex also started an alliance with a ventilation company called Securimax in New Zealand. Securimax would be the sole distributor of Westaflex product in New Zealand and Westaflex / Uniflex would have a new range of ventilation products for the Australian domestic and light commercial areas. The range is extensive as well as state of the art with products like Roof Cowls, Window Fans, Showerlites, Thru-Wall Fans, Heat ‘n’ Vents etc.

In 2001 Westaflex moved its Essendon plant into newer, larger premises down the road in Keilor so that more efficient servicing of the Melbourne western districts could be achieved.

In 2002 a distributor was appointed in Fiji to look after the island group of the Pacific. Although small it was another necessary step forward in the export arena.

In late 2003 another distributor was found in Indonesia. Manufacturing of flexible duct, to compliment the sheet metal shop that had been operating in Perth for a number of years, was established and the first deliveries started rolling off the production line soon after. This has established Westaflex Australia as a true exporter to the Asia Pacific region.

With further expansion into other areas of the globe, Westaflex Australia will continue to expand its product range and export these to the world.

2005 was a year where there were both ups and some major downs.

On the up side , Michael Sterling won the AIRAH "Future Leader" Award, the long awaited release of the "Univent SRV" was done, Westaflex exhibited at the "Big 5" Construction Trade Show in Dubai, UAE with great success, and a blow moulder and two new injection moulders were installed in the Plastics Plant.

On the down side, on the 7th August the Plastics Plant was completely destroyed by fire when a stolen car was dumped and set on fire, causing a chain reaction inside the plant. Over 8 million dollars of damage was sustained. The anticipated rebuilding time will be 6-12 months.

Once the new plant is completed Westaflex will be a modern and well equipped company with a greater ability to ensure the supply of premium quality products to it’s customers.

As stated earlier, with the inclusion of the OAE as a distributor base along with other areas of the globe being investigated, Westaflex will continue to prove it’s a true market export leader.