One of the world’s largest masterbatch manufacturers has had a local presence since 2014, but now, with its new Victorian facility, Ampacet has moved into Australia in a big way.
Officially opening on 14 July, the Dandenong plant will shorten lead-times significantly for customers, and allow clients to collaborate closely in creating custom-made colour and additive solutions.
The move follows the company’s acquisition of Allied Colour in 2014, as well as resin distributor Oceania Plastics a year later.
Ampacet President and CEO Yves Carette said the time had come and have a local presence, enabling it to deliver its products and services to customers.
Ampacet has installed new extrusion equipment, new injection moulding machines, established a state-of-the-art laboratory, and included 3200 pallet spaces in order to speed-up delivery for their customers.
"That’s quite unique for a master batch company," George Pasti, sales and marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, says.
"They’re typically just-in-time and custom-made, but in addition we also supplement this by stocking significant quantities of imported low-cost commodity grades from Ampacet’s large scale global plants."
Country manager for Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Marsh, says the decision to open an Australian operation came at the request of Ampacet’s global customers, who include businesses such as Procter and Gamble, Reckitt-Benckiser, Unilever, BP, Castrol, Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
"Masterbatch is really a proximity business - you can’t do it from far away,” he explains.
The company’s policy is to source as much raw material from domestic suppliers as possible, using pigment from a West Australian company and locally-sourced polymers.
However, it’s simply not feasible to use all-Australian materials.
“Our policy is to try to source all raw materials locally, as much as we can. We’re using more or less 300 raw materials here,” says Carette.
“But, not all of them can be sourced here. The challenge there is supply-chain continuity, especially when certain essential materials are in tight supply."
Sustainability was of genuine concern in developing the new facility, which was built using a number of the energy and water-saving initiatives from Ampacet’s other global plants.
The company has been striving to reduce its own carbon footprint, but also help its clients make efficiency and sustainability gains as well.
Victorian Minister for Industry, Employment and Resources, Wade Noonan, praised Ampacet’s investment in the region.
"Thank you for having the confidence to invest in the state of Victoria. We pride ourselves on our manufacturing foundation, and increasingly investments in advanced manufacturing,” he said.
"You can’t do that without a strong, loyal customer base, or a strong, loyal set of suppliers. We know that if we want to stay globally competitive, we must have businesses like Ampacet who have the confidence to want to invest in Victoria. This is a massive shot of confidence.”
For the full story on Ampacet's move into Australia, see the July/August issue of PKN.
