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PLUMBING CONNECTION
AUTUMN 2015 33
Unfortunately for copper, you the
plumber, started converting to plastic
hot and cold piping systems in a big
way over the past couple of decades,
which meant an overcapacity of
production and that coupled with
imports killed the company. Over 100
people, many with unique skills and
long-serving careers lost their jobs.
Our hearts go out to those people.
We have a more detailed story in this
feature on the Crane Copper closure.
The GWA Group is Australia and
New Zealand’s largest supplier of
bathroom/kitchen fixtures and
fittings. It was announced in October
that the company would concentrate
its efforts on the primary strength of
the company, that being bathroom
(toilets/taps/baths/basins) and
kitchen fittings (taps, sinks). At the
same time, the company announced
it would take the production of its
remaining locally produced product
off-shore.
That has seen GWA divest itself of
the Dux Hot Water business and the
Brivis Climate Systems business units.
Not surprisingly, an Australian
company lined up for the Dux business
but no, our Australian regulators
saw fit to stop this as it might have
‘weakened competition in the storage
water heater market’!
No wonder the ACCC (Australian
Competition and Consumer
Commission) is so unpopular with
Australian business.
Putting theory to the side, the
fact is, in this day and age of global/
local market competition, the likes
of the plumbing merchants wield an
enormous influence on what brands go
in a plumbers’ shopping basket.
Unfortunately with the ACCC,
there’s simply no relevance placed
on Australian-based jobs/ownership
anymore – it’s all about will it cost
the end consumer an extra dollar
or two and can everyone make a bit
more margin. Canberra-based text
book rationalism gone mad…have
they ever thought there might be less
consumers, due to more being out of
work and without any spending power?
Fortunately though, Dux isn’t being
abandoned and has been taken over by
Noritz, a Japanese company of repute,
who are keen to see the brand prosper.
You will find a profile of the company at
the end of this article.
Noritz’s purchase of Dux virtually
gives Japanese companies the full
hand of the market for storage and
instantaneous heaters. Rheem’s
parent is Japanese-based Paloma,
Dux is now under the Noritz flag and
Rinnai Corporation makes up the main
balance of share.
At the time of publishing, Rinnai had
entered into an agreement to buy the
Brivis business from GWA.
In some ways, GWA has taken the
route of the vehicle industry. They
will continue to run their product
development out of Sydney at a new
Innovation and Technology Centre
and source the manufacturing from
overseas.
The Norwood (South Australia)
plastics operation will phase out
over the next couple of years, while
the Wetherill Park (NSW) vitreous
china manufacturing facility ceased
production at the end of last year. All
in all that will mean the termination
of 164 employees, which represents
around 10% of GWA’s total workforce
of 1671 people across Australia.
In 2015, we’re destined to see more
amalgamations as suppliers look to
improve their business scale and no
doubt some won’t see 2016 under their
current ownership and structure. It’s
an ever changing world out there in
plumbing land!
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