CT REFINISHER
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Driven to diversify Y
ou know you must be doing a lot right when customers are so happy with your product portfolio, they begin urging you to fill other product niches because they trust they are going to love them as much as the existing range. For Sloanebuilt Trailers (SBT), this wave of customer lobbying provided the confidence to make the biggest investment in the company’s history, resulting in a brand-new factory and facilities, along with a substantial expansion of skilled staff. Interestingly, this sort of customer driven demand has been a factor at SBT since day-one, back in the mid-1970s, when Ken Sloane offered rare aluminium welding capabilities to Sydney’s tipper operators. After taking over the business in the mid-1980s, Fred and Helen Marano actually used their own experience as tipper operators to build custom designed tippers to suit the needs of customers. From a small factory in Camden, SBT expanded to a 2.5 acre site in Smeaton Grange in 2000, before making the step up to a vast nine
Spurred on by persistent customer requests to expand its range of quality services and products, Sloanebuilt Trailers embarked on a major investment in facilities and people.
acre site (still in Smeaton Grange) in mid2020. The decision to make the massive investment turned out to be a no-brainer, according to Bennett Haberbusch, SBT Business Relationship Manager. “Sloanebuilt Trailers is best known for our long lasting, simple to use, safe and reliable tippers but a lot of our clients are fairly diverse in what they do. For example, they might have tippers but also drop-decks for transporting hay or machinery, or they might also do general freight using tautliners, etc. Over the years, customers kept asking us to be more of a one-stop-shop that covered even more of their needs. Instead of turning people away, the opportunity was there to expand our product range, as well as increase our service / repair offering, spare parts, etc. It was about reinvesting rather than standing still and that made the decision pretty easy.”
