Components Putting together the puzzle Australia’s biggest distributor of industrial components is now partnered with the US’s largest. Manufacturers’ Monthly finds out how you can’t go wrong with Inenco Industrial Solutions.
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HERE are not many businesses that can successfully grow from a family-owned operation into the leading company in its field. But that is exactly what Inenco Group have done. Founded in 1954 by father and son, JJ Martin-Weber and RJ MartinWeber, as Consolidated Bearing Company (CBC), the company has transformed over the past half a century into Australia’s largest distributor of components for industrial applications, as Naz Paine, General Manager Marketing at Inenco Industrial Solutions explains. “CBC grew from being focussed on selling automotive, OEM, and mining bearings into the field of bearings and power transmission solutions. From the introduction of V-belts, chains, and sprockets, the Industrial Solutions brandmoved into providing industrial gearboxes, electric motors and drives. We have diversified our market over the last 50 years to encompass lots of maintenance and repair operations, requirements that are needed for the industrial sector.” Along the way, CBC acquired Bearing Service Pty Ltd (BSC) in 1984, and in 2003 transformed into the Inenco Group of businesses, acquiring driveline and hydraulic services business Hardy Spicer. These moves reflected the changes that the Australian industrial sector was experiencing, and Inenco adapted to remain the partner of choice. “Once upon a time, an Australian business would have a supplier for bearings, a supplier for power transmission, and a supplier for consumables and more,” said Paine. “As Australian businesses have morphed over time, they seek to consolidate supply lines, make life easier, and work with suppliers that can be that one stop shop for industrial solutions.” Over the past 20 years, Inenco has also collaborated with Australian 44 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly
More than just providing parts, Inenco are focussed on partnering for a solution.
industry as it becomes more globalised and connected with its neighbours. “From 2000 to 2012 the company really accelerated in the world of acquisitions and diversification,” said Paine. “We had over 20 acquisitions, including the likes of Seaco Wilson in New Zealand, and we launched CBC PT in Indonesia and acquired Fenner Power Transmission Far East (Singapore) in 2014.” The next milestone for the company came in July 2019, as US-based Genuine Parts Company acquired the Inenco Group. While these changes have led to a number of changes, at the customer level, the brands that they have come to know over the past 65 years remain, and are now connected by an ever-stronger support network. “There are multiple businesses, but one powerful team,” said Paine. In addition, the capabilities that
Inenco offers to its customers have shifted, to closely align with the particular requirements of Australian industry as these become more specialised. “As the business evolves, it goes from distributing products, to being a business that then value-adds around that product. We now have over 60 engineers and three workshops who provide consultative, design, and remanufacture services. “We are starting to diversify the business beyond just selling parts into bespoke services and manufacturing as required,” said Paine. This change is a result of conditions on the ground in Australian industry, and how Inenco, with its decades of expertise, can best equip customers to tackle their next challenge. “Lots of older plant and equipment that are in the Australian market may have been designed as a one-off or
small run application. We will have to go back and redesign components to make sure that they are functioning for the customer to the performance that they had or at an even a greater capacity,” said Paine. “We often improve the customer’s capacity and uptime to ensure that we’re taking the customer to that next level of productivity.”
Keeping Australia rolling While Inenco may not be a household name, it is more than likely that a product they have supplied is part of each Australian’s life. This fact is at the centre of Inenco’s Let’s Roll campaign. As Paine highlights, technologies such as bearings are fundamental to modern society. “What we do as Inenco touches life for Australians almost every day. For example, food and beverage manufacturing, and rolling stock; manmonthly.com.au