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Kelly Engineering winning awards for exporting to Europe and US
ALEXANDRA ECONOMOU From: AdelaideNow February 01, 2011 12:00AM
THE Kelly family has built a multi-million dollar business from its Booleroo Centre base in the Southern Flinders Ranges.
Kelly Engineering which Peter Kelly started in a farm workshop on the family property 25 years ago is today an award-winning manufacturer, exporting to the US and Europe. Last year was stellar for the company. It was named the Telstra South Australian Business of the Year, won the national Telstra-MYOB Regional Business Award and took the title of Australia's Regional Exporter of the Year.
Despite the accolades, it is business as usual at Kelly Engineering's headquarters, 10km south of Booleroo Centre. Its chief executive Shane Kelly, Peter's son, manages a staff of 40 and oversees the manufacture of agricultural machinery.
The showpiece of the business is Kelly's Diamond Disc Chain Harrow. There are six models of the machine which mulches stubble and creates excellent seed beds, while reducing fuel use.
Shane Kelly says taking a major risk to break into the US market has been challenging but hugely rewarding. The first step in a long process saw Mr Kelly attend the World Agriculture Expo in Tulare, California, in February, 2006.
"Austrade were instrumental in getting us there and they went out of their way to make sure we were introduced to the right people," he says. "I spoke to a guy who was selling Canadian-made prickle chains in Missouri and he was looking for something new. Steve Hood was the independent rep I met and he had customers willing to try new products and he had dealers where those customers bought from. We made our first sale with the Lawrence City Tractor Company, in Arkansas."
The first US order was for two machines. In 2007, Kelly Engineering manufactured 30 Diamond Disc Chain Harrows for customers in the US and 70 for the domestic market.
The company faced a big hurdle, however, when it patented the product. Mr Kelly says Texas-based manufacturer Humdinger Equipment produced the "first copy" of the Disc Chain Harrow. "They had taken one of our machines down to Texas and in January, 2009, Humdinger had the first copy out in the field," he says. "They obviously had the confidence that the changes made to their design weren't so (obvious) and they sold a reasonable number of machines. They were making sales based on being American. But it's a unique product and Humdinger was selling 10 a year and we were selling 80."
In the past two years, Europe has also emerged as a key export market for Kelly Engineering. A Denmark-based company inquired about manufacturing the Diamond Disc Chain Harrow under licence. "Broadacre cropping is pretty common in Demark," says Mr Kelly. "The really interesting thing about Danish farmers is the cost of land is so high that they lease farms in the Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. In two years, they have produced 50 machines."
Mr Kelly believes taking risks and providing sound customer service has paid dividends for Kelly Engineering. "I think (our success has come from) risk-taking and the domestic growth we achieved, especially at a time from 2008 when the rest of the world wasn't racing ahead," he says. "We try to present a professional face and a professional product to all our customers. We have always (focused on) remaining close to the customers and we want to stay that way."
