On Friday the 24th August, Marand signed agreements with Ford Motor Co. which will have it lease the old Ford toolroom site in Geelong and purchase the assets within the same facility.
Marand has 43 years of accumulated experience, knowledge and success as Australia’s leading precision engineering company across a breadth of sectors including aerospace, defence, rail, automotive, mining and energy. Marand’s innovation in automation and industry diversity has been critical to their ongoing growth.
The Managing Director of Marand, Mr. David Ellul stated “We were actively looking for a suitable Geelong site to house some of our larger defence manufacturing contracts when Ford announced the toolroom closure. I’m happy we have been successful in negotiating the agreement with Ford which allows us to relocate 21 additional machining centres from our Airport West and Moorabbin facilities to create what will be one of Australia’s largest Fabrication, Machining and Assembly workshops. The site is ideal given its existing equipment and infrastructure combined with the space for our machines and the close proximity to Rail, Port and Air transport enables us to better support our international customers moving forward.”
Mr. Ellul also stated he is “pleased to be building a business in Geelong where Marand already has a long history of supporting many of the manufacturing businesses in the region” and that “the Victorian Government has provided support to enable an innovative high tech company to continue to grow its manufacturing business.”
The Marand Geelong facility will initially house the serial production and assembly of the Joint strike fighter F-35 engine installation and removal trailer for which Marand is the design authority and global sole source supplier to Lockheed Martin. The complex engineered trailer contains over 12,000 individual components for which Marand manufacturers over 4,000 components for each unit.
In addition to the F-35 Trailer work, Marand has won three consecutive Lockheed Martin Excellence awards in quality and delivery performance for shipping in excess of 500 Aerospace tools around the globe for the F-35 program. Marand are also in the planning phase for setting up and creating a F-35 Vertical Tail Assembly plant in Geelong in late 2013. Marand have signed agreements to provide 722 ship sets of the F-35 Vertical Tails as strategic second source on the JSF program to BAE Systems in the UK.
Earlier in May this year, Marand was awarded Manufacturer of the Year (Large Business) at the Victorian Government’s Manufacturing Hall of Fame awards where on acceptance of the award Mr Ellul expressed his thanks to the Marand customers in particular Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems for the trust they have placed in Marand on the F-35 program; Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton for the Marand work in rail, mining and automation; and Ford Motor Company for their continued relationship and support for over 35 years. Marand was selected by industry experts against criteria including export performance, enabling technologies utilised, innovation in manufacturing, quality management and sustainable practices amongst others.
Media Enquiries
Alex Lyon
Phone: +61 3 8552 0600
Email: alex_lyon@marand.com.au
Photo: The Marand designed and manufactured F-35 removal and installation trailer supplied to Lockheed Martin
