The modern world could not function without a lot of things we routinely take for granted, and this is certainly true of springs. Queensland-based Marsh Alliance is Australia’s leading manufacturer of this underappreciated, yet vital, component of our everyday lives.
Springs are everywhere but invisible, at least if you’re not looking. And nobody looks for springs.
But your house, for example, is full of them.
“In construction there’s a number of products that we manufacture, and garage door springs are one of our larger production lines,” explains Chris Watt, Sales & Marketing Manager at Marsh Alliance, of some of their uses by the company’s construction customer base. “Most garage doors and industrial roller shutters would have a spring appropriate to the size of the door to allow for balancing and easy lifting of the door.
“We also promote a number of products in the HVAC industry, from both our springs and pressed componentry divisions, for various subassemblies that installers would utilise within the larger construct of HVAC. Additionally suspension ceiling systems are a consistent part of our business, producing componentry that goes into suspended ceiling board systems.”
Watt’s company was known as Marsh Springs and Metal Products until earlier this year. It remains the country’s biggest spring maker, and employs just over 100 dedicated personnel. The company’s history goes back to 1953 when it was founded by Thomas Marsh. Today it is still a family business, owned by Thomas’ son Greg Marsh, who has successfully run the business since 1979.
As of June 2021 the business was officially rebranded as Marsh Alliance, organising a company grown through a series of recent acquisitions into four unique business units, each reflecting a set of complementary strengths built up over the years as the business grew. All four units operate out of a 7,000sqm site at Carole Park, south-west of Brisbane, which the company has operated out of since 2007.
To allow customers an easy way to identify Marsh Alliance’s manufacturing capabilities and to easily communicate its business proposition, the company has been organised according to its four main production divisions.
“Marsh Springs, as the staple of the business still holds first place in our group,” Watt explains. “However, it is backed up with capacities in Marsh Pressed Parts, Marsh Wire Forms and Marsh Specialty Coatings.”
Marsh Wire Forms covers simple-to-complex wire clips and shapes manufactured in low- to high-volume runs to suit customers’ needs.
Marsh Pressed Parts can make everything from small spring clips to pressed components over 2m long, and typically operates higher-volume production. The press division offers presses suitable for a variety of customer requirements, with a press capacity of up to 110 tonnes. It is supported by a fully-equipped, inhouse tool room to keep it all running.
Finally, Marsh Coatings is a registered applicator of products made by anti-corrosion specialist Magni, with Australia’s biggest dip-and-spin coating plant. The company coats with Magni 565 “on a daily basis”. This is a high-corrosive-resistent two-coat system, consisting of an organic aluminium-rich top coat of five microns, on an inorganic zinc-rich base coat of eight microns. Magni paint is applied utilising a dip-and-spin technology applying controlled layers of coating.
Magni 565 routinely achieves neutral salt spray resistance of 1,000 hours and is often specified in the automotive industry, with corrosion protection exceeding all automotive standards and requirements and protecting against hydrogen embrittlement. Automotive is one of the markets Marsh Alliance serves with technology, along with the construction and agricultural segments.
“It became a focus of ours to differentiate, firstly, these services within our business, so we can actively promote each section to the companies that are looking for that type of contract manufacturing,” says Watt. “And we were able to approach many of our existing customers with the offer of taking on some of their production, and even part of the retooling of their production, as we’re able to offer in-house tool design, manufacture and then manufacturing of the componentry.
“By displaying the four capability businesses that we have is to better position ourselves in the marketplace for companies looking for Australian contract manufacturers.”
A key supplier
Marsh Alliance’s business is almost entirely contract manufacturing. Its customer list includes Bluescope Steel, Schneider Electric, Assa Abloy, and Trajan Scientific and Medical.
“I would say that construction, mining, automotive and certainly manufacturing would be the largest sub-sectors of our business,” adds Watt.
Some of its acquisitions – the company made seven between 2010 and 2020 – had an automotive heritage, and this lives on at Marsh Alliance. A “fair amount” of auto industry client orders find their way into locally demanded products, mostly aftermarket spares and accessories.
“And we do continue to support local automotive manufacturers because we can manufacture componentry used in their finished goods,” says Watt. “There is still a small sector of automotive suppliers in Australia manufacturing parts, which we continue to support, but the bulk of manufacturing would be exported at the present time.”
In general, he adds, the overall focus of the business has been serving Australian customers, but over the last four or five years it has actively ventured into export.
“It’s certainly a growing part of our business, that Marsh Alliance will continue developing.” He explains. “There’s a fundamental need to be able to serve existing business partners internationally, particularly when we find local Australian companies with multiple manufacturing points around the world. It became a natural way for us to approach global partners as we’re an existing key supplier, with a confirmed high-quality standard, capable of manufacturing and supplying parts globally to the standards required.”
As part of the service that Marsh Alliance offers, it maintains a sales force on the eastern seaboard with a presence in each state to ensure a hands-on, personalised customer experience. Being close to its customers has proved important in Marsh Alliance’s business-to-business sales context, allowing the company to understand its customers better and offer improved service, and meaning that customers can access design support and other assistance.
This year, Marsh Alliance has turned to digital marketing to drive new business, making use of Google tools, SEO, and revamping their website. Watt explains: “It’s part of the rebranding activity, which is an exciting opportunity for us to start showcasing what we have.”
They have also begun using print media. Watt adds that fingers are crossed for next year’s Australian Manufacturing Week exhibition and the resumption of trade shows.
Not your typical skillset
Australia has a small collection of spring manufacturers according to Watt, numbering only a few significant companies. International competition is strong, he believes. The much-publicised desire for manufacturing to reshore has been difficult for a lot of companies to act on, despite a lot of good intentions about going local.
“I think the retooling costs faced by many other producers in the country are a bit too high, and they’ve gone back to importing what they can, and if they have to, doing some sort of subassemblies locally,” Watt comments. “Recently we’ve managed to attract some good business and I think there’s still opportunity for us to grow within the local market. But it’s more on the back of other manufacturers being able to successfully reshore their manufacturing in Australia, and creating the opportunity for Marsh Alliance to work with them on their component needs.”
Happily, he says a lot of companies looking to bring production home have been surprised by what capacity still exists here in spring and pressed parts manufacturing. Marsh Alliance plans to grow what it has here, though Watt declines to give specifics about investments in machinery or meeting new quality management standards.
Marsh Alliance’s sustainability plan includes a 100kW solar system installed in 2018, and the business will continue to review other ways it can cut its energy consumption and operate more sustainably.
As for training for future needs, this is particularly challenging at one of the country’s few remaining spring makers, operating in the relative obscurity of contract manufacturing. Fortunately staff retention is high, and retaining skills for ongoing in-house training of new team members is paramount to ongoing growth. According to the Marsh Alliance website, some of its employees have been at the company for over 40 years.
“We’ve had a high retention of skills with an organisation, which has worked well for us, through our growth and some of the expansion that has happened over the last two years,” Watt says. “What I would suggest is the skill requirement in our industry specifically doesn’t really exist as a trained skill in the marketplace, so we actively train internally. We recruit for technical and mechanical aptitude and we train internally.
“Because spring-making is not a typical skill that you would find in the market.”