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Threats or Opportunities? – Australian Manufacturers

With impacts of the strong Australian dollar, Australian manufacturers are competing against increasingly cheaper foreign goods, therefore struggle to survive in a changing economy. Announcements of job cuts are becoming routine.

Threats may cause pain, but may also bring opportunities.

Sutton Tools one of the oldest and largest family business in the world, is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year. Under this tough economic situation, the fundamentals of Sutton Tools business haven’t changed: reinvestment in technology, focus on product innovation, development in overseas markets and continual focus on our customer’s needs.

“In Australia we employ 350 staff. Interestingly, our biggest export market currently is in Germany and we’ve been exporting to Europe for around 12 years now, and that’s grown significantly in the last five years.” proudly said by Peter Sutton – Sutton Tools Chief Manufacture Officer.

“We’ve always seen ourselves, as a global competitor and felt that if we weren’t able to compete on a global fair playing market then it was only a short-term prospect. So we tend to compete on a fair level playing field with the rest of the world.”

Sutton Tools maintains a heavy focus on R&D and with a fully staffed R&D test centre incorporating all current technology for tool testing and measurement to allow for benchmarking any application.

“We’re not cutting jobs, we’re actually still trying to grow our business, mainly through our export activities in Europe. Comparing yourself and your products and cost against leading manufacturers, involves a lot of industry research, a lot of travel and a lot of investment as well in maintaining the most efficient plant possible.”

Sutton Tools is focused to continue manufacturing in Australia and produce world class quality products.

It is not enough to survive under this current economic situation, but to build strength and maintain growth for the future.

In celebrating 95 years in manufacturing Sutton Tools would like to thank our customers and look forward to continual service into the next 100 years.