6 minute read
Steeline: Service Over and Above
ESTABLISHED OVER 30 YEARS AGO IN 1991, STEELINE IS AUSTRALIA'S ONLY NATIONAL BUYING GROUP OF INDEPENDENTLY OWNED, METAL ROOFING AND STEEL BUILDING PRODUCT ROLLFORMING SPECIALISTS. WITH AROUND 50 BRANCHES ALL ACROSS AUSTRALIA—MOSTLY IN REGIONAL AREAS—STEELINE IS FAMILY OWNED, NIMBLE, LOCAL AND VERY SERVICE ORIENTED. THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE STORES, RUN THE STORES.
According to Andrew Walsh (Chief Executive Officer, Steeline), "The Steeline Group was originally created by the Jones family (The Roofing Centre Albury-Wodonga) over 30 years ago in 1991, and in 2021 we celebrated 30 years together. Steeline’s three founding members also included The Roofing Centre Mildura and The Roofing Centre Tasmania. In the 30 years since, the Steeline Group has grown considerably, and now has around 30 members across all Australian states and territories.”
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Steeline’s growth has not only been through the acquisition of new members, the Group has also grown through the addition of new branches, and through organic growth, with new roll forming machines, new market segments, new customers, and increased market size and share.”
Steeline’s members are all local manufacturers and suppliers of high quality roll-formed steel building products, from roofing and rainwater goods, to steel framing, fencing, sheds, purlins, top-hats and battens, and many other steel building products. Steeline
Andrew Walsh (Chief Executive Officer, Steeline) also offers a variety of complementary products including fasteners, insulation, skylights and fibreglass and polycarbonate sheeting. Some Steeline members also choose to specialise in a particular market segment, such as purlins and girts for the commercial and industrial sectors, steel panel fencing, sheds, garages, carports, patios or steel framing.
"Steeline is quite unique in the steel industry, in that we are Australia's only buying group of steel roll-formers. At Steeline, we see ourselves as being very different to all the rest. We’re not 'big corporates' like the others; we’re family owned and operated, we’re nimble, local – and very service oriented. We look after our customers like nobody else can, and we pride ourselves on delivering service over and above," said Walsh.
Steeline‘s roll-formed building products are made from well-known, Australian made brands such as COLORBOND® steel, ZINCALUME® steel, GALVASPAN® steel, TRUECORE® steel and AQUAPLATE® steel, giving their customers the confidence that the job will last. As a national buying group, Steeline uses its combined volume and purchasing power to leverage the best possible value from its key suppliers. The sheer volume of purchasing power aggregated by the size of the overall group provides each individual member with economies of scale that they would not have been able to achieve on their own.
"Steeline has a strong regional focus, which isn’t to say that we're not in the capital cities, but rather, we have a stronger presence in regional areas than metropolitan. Some roll-formed or folded metal building products can be challenging to transport over long distances and unless they are handled carefully, they can sometimes be prone to transport or handling damage. By having Steeline branches close-by in regional areas, Steeline is well placed to minimise traveling distances and therefore avoid these problems,” said Walsh.
Steeline currently operates in around 50 locations, from Darwin to Hobart, Perth, Cairns, Mount Gambier and Wagga Wagga, through to Shepparton, Mackay and Maroochydore. And, at Steeline, the people who own the stores, run the stores.
“Being locally owned also means we have a significant interest in doing a great job for both our customers and the local community. It also means our customers can just walk in and discuss their needs with local people who really care," said Walsh.
"Steeline also has really good relationships with our key suppliers. As a national Group, we are sufficiently sized that we are important customers and channel partners to large suppliers, such as BlueScope, Fletchers, CSR, Buildex, Ampelite and many others, but we also aim to be easy to do business with – partners looking to succeed together."
For Steeline’s members, the benefits of Steeline membership are about more than just purchasing power. National Steeline Conferences are held twice per year, to maintain the close relationships between members, and to discuss and formulate a range of strategic initiatives. Conferences are an opportunity for
the CEO and Board to present reports and strategic plans, and a time for rotating and electing members of various smaller focus groups such as those focused on areas like marketing and engineering. Importantly, Steeline also sees its national conferences as essential for the development and maintenance of great relationships with its national supplier networks.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH
"At Steeline, we believe steel is simply the best, most versatile, most sustainable and most beautiful building product there is. And yet steel's share of the overall building and construction market is substantially lower than it could be – lower than it should be," said Walsh.
"The biggest opportunity for the Australian steel industry is to displace other building products (like timber, tiles, bricks and concrete) with strong, light weight, versatile, beautiful Australian made steel products—like those made in Australia by Steeline."
"Over the last few years we have seen massive growth in the building sector, driven by a wide range of factors including economic stimulus. This ‘boom’ eventually led to all sorts of supply shortages in many common building materials, as well as labour shortages, and it also created a significant increase in the demand for steel building products.”
“To some extent, Steeline was able to quickly adapt and grow to meet the sudden increase, but eventually, global supply chains started to run short, including the global steel supply chain and Australian steelmakers. This limited Steeline’s ability to satisfy the total market opportunity, and in our part of the market, metallic coated and pre-painted steel capacity seemed to be the major bottlenecks.”
“This could have been a great opportunity to showcase the flexibility of the whole steel industry, compared to other products, and this could have embedded long term intermaterial market share growth for the whole industry. However, supply shortages meant we were not able to capitalise on this boom as much as we would have liked.”
“Looking to the future, BlueScope (the major manufacturer and supplier of metallic coated and pre-painted steel products in Australia) has recently shared a multi-stage evaluation process for new metal coating capacity in Australia, which is intended to be up and running in 2025. This additional capacity should set us up well to meet future demand,” said Walsh.
Like most businesses, Steeline continues to look for opportunities to capitalise on this growth. "Steeline has traditionally had a very strong regional focus and our extensive regional footprint positions us well for growth, as Australia’s population continues to decentralise and migrate out of the capital cities," said Walsh.
"This process was supercharged during the recent COVID-19 lockdowns, as everyone suddenly had to learn to work from home. Interestingly, people realised they didn’t need to work so close to the capital cities. They could be just as productive (maybe even more so) when they worked from home, and many experienced a more favourable lifestyle and worklife balance after moving to the regions…which is where Steeline is located!"
“We think the future is very bright for Steeline and we are looking forward to it," said Walsh.
Steeline Bathurst's purpose-built manufacturing facility in Kelso. Photo courtesy of Akura Industrial Developments Project Manager.
