Built for protection: Danny Elassaad, Managing Director, CW Products

Tony Cassar: CW Products has been around since 1984. Take us back to how the business started.

Danny Elassaad: We were founded by my father, so it’s a multi-generational family business. Dad and mum arrived in Australia in around 1983. They came here with no language, no money, but a lot of drive and ambition to provide a better future for their family, and that’s really where the roots of CW Products come from.

Dad knew the only way he was going to make it in this country was to start his own business. He really started to orient his thinking in that direction and ultimately founded what was called CW Projects at the time, not Products. That was around doing anything that could add value to people’s lives using his skillset: buying old machinery, fixing it, selling it, helping people improve their production lines.

Then one day he came home and found mum quite distraught. She was pregnant with myself at the time and she really didn’t feel safe in their apartment in Croydon. She said, “All that’s protecting me and what’s out there in the street is this thin window.” Dad saw an opportunity in that, particularly with his academic background in France, where he was studying how to optimise energy efficiency in homes and reduce society’s dependence on fossil fuels. He came across roller shutters and thought, “I haven’t heard about these in the market here. Maybe there’s an opportunity.” And that’s really where things kicked off.

Tony Cassar: Your father’s background is quite specific for a window furnishings business.

Danny Elassaad: He’s a mechanical engineer with a PhD in solar engineering. He was really at the forefront of solar energy back in the late 70s, early 80s. So his thinking about roller shutters was never just about security. It was always about passive energy management, about how a product on the outside of a building reduces what you need to do mechanically on the inside. That framing is still very much at the heart of how we think about our products today.

Tony Cassar: How did he grow the business from those early days?

Danny Elassaad: He was doing two or three different things at the same time, because starting a business from its infancy doesn’t mean you make money on day one, and you have a family to support. But in the early days he was really out there, building relationships with window furnishings retailers, pushing and promoting the product, earning the trust and confidence of the market.

He started to build a relationship with a manufacturer called Harald in Germany, which came through my uncle, who happened to live in the same village. Through that connection dad developed a relationship, started importing Harald’s products, fabricating locally and wholesaling from there. We were probably one of the pioneers in the roller shutter space in this country.

There was a period where we did retail, but that was brief. What we found was our strengths are really orientated towards being excellent wholesale suppliers. That’s always been our model.

Tony Cassar: And how did you come into the business?

Danny Elassaad: I was always dad’s shadow growing up. From as young as seven years old he’d take me to meetings, visit customers, spend time in the factory. Growing up in a first-generation migrant household, we didn’t really have the privilege of school holidays, school holidays meant you went and worked in the factory. What that gave me was a strong bond with the business itself and a deep appreciation for where it came from.

Whilst I was studying at university I was working in the business part-time and became more involved in the day-to-day. I probably took it seriously in my early twenties when I made a clear and conscious decision that this was the pathway for me.

Tony Cassar: What were you studying?

Danny Elassaad: Visual communication with a bit of marketing. I’ve always had a strong passion for design. If I hadn’t come into the business I probably would have started something that incorporated design, marketing and sales, I’ve always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. But this was the opportunity in front of me and I believed in it.

Tony Cassar: You’re now Managing Director. How do you describe the role?

Danny Elassaad: I’m responsible for the overall business and its performance. The focus is on developing the company, ensuring we have the right strategy, the right infrastructure, an engaged and happy workforce, and a strong trajectory for growth. You need to be building capability and systems, not just managing the day-to-day. The business needs to be bigger than any individual.

Tony Cassar: CW Products employs more than 100 people. Where are you based?

Danny Elassaad: We operate across two sites in South Australia. Our main production facility is in Murray Bridge, about an hour from Adelaide, and we have our Cambridge facility as well.

Murray Bridge came about around 16 years ago when it became clear we needed significantly more space and sites in metropolitan Adelaide were out of our price range. We came across the former James Hardie site in Murray Bridge, which was a phenomenal piece of infrastructure we could pick up at a very affordable price. We thought, this is the sort of facility that can really set us up for the coming 20 years.

Murray Bridge has been exceptionally good to us. We have a very strong, loyal local workforce. Recruitment can be challenging, particularly for senior roles, but as Adelaide grows and regions like Mount Barker expand, that’s improving. We’re very much committed to the region, it’s been great to us and we want to give back wherever we can.

Tony Cassar: Where is CW Products positioned strategically?

Danny Elassaad: In the last several years we’ve been going deeper and deeper into our niche rather than wider into other product categories. We’re the only supplier in our segment that can really do anything from the most basic domestic installation right through to the most complex commercial solutions. That technical knowledge and expertise, that ability to be solutions-oriented for our customers, is at the heart of what we do.

We now see ourselves as a global protection company. That framing opens things up, products that protect against heat, cold, UV, noise and security threats, across domestic, commercial and industrial settings. It broadens the opportunity while keeping us focused on what we’re genuinely best at.

Tony Cassar: You spent a day on the road with one of your retail partners recently. What did you take from it?

Danny Elassaad: As a wholesale manufacturer, we’re quite removed from where the work is won and lost. We can be quite disconnected from what’s actually important to the end user. So I reached out to one of our key retailers and asked if I could join them on the road for a day as their apprentice, I really wanted to get to the cold face and see what customers were asking, what was important to them, how the product was being positioned.

It was incredibly insightful. A key thing coming out of the day was that end users really wanted to know where the product was being made. They had a strong affinity with Australian made and wanted to ensure the product was Australian made, of high quality, and from a reputable source.

That gave me absolute confidence that we were on the right pathway, that we were right to foreground our Australian-made heritage and do everything we can to make sure it’s prominent in the minds of our retailers and their customers.

I also saw clear opportunity to improve the sales process across the board. We as the wholesale partner have a responsibility to empower our retailers to educate the end user in the true value of what we’re offering. Through history you find a lot of people out there quoting but you want them to be selling. There’s a big difference.

Tony Cassar: That connects to a broader point about the product being undersold?

Danny Elassaad: Absolutely. I actually think the roller shutter is the best value-for-money solution you can get in our order of products. Climate control, light control, security, energy saving, it does so much. Sometimes when people are selling them they don’t talk about how many things they actually do. Criminal, I think.

When someone has lived with our products they really struggle without them. The product sells itself if you actually explain it properly.

Tony Cassar: What are the biggest challenges facing the business right now?

Danny Elassaad: It’s a turbulent world out there. Our biggest challenges are navigating through a period of significant disruption, particularly what’s going on in the Middle East. We’re seeing supply challenges, lead times from suppliers are starting to blow out. Aluminium prices have skyrocketed since July by almost 40 per cent. That’s a significant cost pressure and a real concern. We’re also seeing significant upward pressure in our own operations, energy prices are going through the roof. So we’re not short on challenges and headwinds at the moment.

Tony Cassar: Sustainability, what’s your approach?

Danny Elassaad: We’re big believers in reducing waste. We’re moving more and more towards sustainable packaging, actively working to reduce plastic and moving towards cardboard and timber. We have significant large-scale solar on our Cambridge production facility.

And as a wholesale provider, we have a responsibility to push and promote the advantages of living with our type of products. They can significantly reduce the need for air conditioning and energy use. We want to empower people to have greater control over their environments and reduce their environmental impact. The sustainability story for our category is genuinely strong, we just need to tell it better.

Tony Cassar: You’re exhibiting at the upcoming WSAA SuperExpo. What does the event mean to the business?

Danny Elassaad: It’s a great opportunity to be immersed in an environment where everyone comes together. A great way to connect with customers, industry partners and peers in one place. I always walk away with a strong sense of camaraderie. It’s also a great way to see the latest trends and innovations play out and to get direct customer feedback on our latest developments. You’re not only educating, you’re being educated.

We’ll be releasing several new products at the Expo that I’m really excited about. The focus is on improving habitability and resilience for the harsh Australian climate.

Tony Cassar: How important is WSAA membership to a business like yours?

Danny Elassaad: Paramount. The ability to be part of an organisation that can advocate on behalf of the entire industry is very important. It allows us to work together on industry-wide initiatives, connect with peers and work toward shared objectives.

If you look at the fundamentals of where we’re heading, climate change, extreme weather events, energy efficiency, protection against heat, reducing noise, all of these things lend themselves to a stronger uptake of our style of products. Our industry has a strong role to play in advocating that. I take a lot of encouragement from that alignment.

Tony Cassar: What have been your greatest achievements?

Danny Elassaad: Just identifying the opportunity to grow and develop this business at a younger age. I’ve spent the last 20 years working to help scale what we have and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve managed to achieve. I feel like we’re still at the start of our journey, but I go into the future with absolute confidence.

Tony Cassar: Who have been the greatest influences on you personally and professionally?

Danny Elassaad: It has to be my parents. They are incredible human beings. They grew up as refugees, made the most of every opportunity they had or created, and did everything they could to set their kids up for success. They made huge personal sacrifices that I’m forever grateful for.

Tony Cassar: And looking forward, what does the future look like for CW Products?

Danny Elassaad: We believe there’s a lot of opportunity to continue to grow and lead through innovation, and ultimately by ensuring we’re absolutely relevant to the marketplace. We’re all about embracing change, growing people, developing capability and using technology so that we can keep the future as broad as possible.

The macro trends are in our favour. The world we’re heading into needs what we make. That’s a strong foundation.