READYMADE REPORT

One area in which the readymades market in Australia is likely to experience ripple effects is in childsafe options, in light of a recent change to rules in the US, which look set to impact what the Australian market is selling or planning to sell. A US safety standard that went into effect in late 2018 effectively requires all stock products, sold in stores and online, to be cordless or have inaccessible or short cords.

According to Ben Herrgott, General Manager – Packaged division + Four Families at Basford Brands, the knock-on effects of the change take longer to kick in for the Australian market.

“What is happening in the US in term of cordless systems is definitely a consideration for Australian and NZ big box retailers; however the adoption of these new concepts, which is new at least to the readymade market, has been slow for two key reasons. Firstly, the offshore suppliers of these devices have been overwhelmed by US demand late last year and haven’t necessarily been focusing on our market. Secondly, there is a significant price premium for such devices; rollers and venetian readymade blinds are a commodity in Australia, and therefore not always in a position to justify any price increase.” Unless the same changes are enforced in Australia, says Herrgott, “we might not see a strong uptake.”

“We are aware of large international retailers with significant buying power entering the market with cordless, and it can only be seen as positive for child safety,” he adds.

Another significant player in the readymades arena is Ozroll, where a key focus in the category continues to be providing a premium service with product ready for install, says National Sales + Marketing Manager Jack McDonald.

“We do offer componentry alone for fabricators around the country; however a large majority of our business still revolves around assembled brands. In fact, often we strike a partnership with a fabricator and they will end up reducing their overheads by closing down their own production facilities and purchasing readymade from us instead.”

“We find what we do and the way we do it makes it easy for resellers,” says McDonald. “We produce a high quality finished product in industry best turnaround times and we do it consistently. From South Australia, our domestic roller shutters are still made and dispatched within 48 hours of receiving the order. We are already producing readymade Slidetrack Blinds within five days and this lead time is reducing as we fine tune our operations. From Queensland, we’re producing plantation shutters in 10 working days and our aluminium louvres are released within a month, if customers choose from our standard colour range.”

A huge effort behind the scenes underpins Ozroll’s consistent record in meeting its own company benchmarks, he says. “We need to make sure we have all the necessary stock on hand, trained personnel to handle fluctuating workloads, packaging to prevent the items from getting damaged in transit and then distribution options that allow us to ship hundreds of units per day to all corners of the country from two locations.”

The company is continually looking for ways to speed up and automate production.

“For example, we have recently purchased a KS Schulten slatting machine for our roller shutter assembly area and also state-ofthe-art welding equipment for skins in our Slidetrack Blinds. An added positive of making these investments is that as well as speeding up production, we also get even better consistency with quality as well.”

“That said, we still take on board customer feedback and often change our processes internally to meet that demand. For example we have implemented new processes in our Slidetrack production area, such as prefitting our Ezylift handle and adding weight bars to the bottom bar during assembly, to make it easier for installers and reduce time on site.”