XLERPLATE® Steel Helps Queensland Fabricator Thrive

06 February 2006

A background in boilermaking in New Zealand provided the launching point for a successful business career when Paul Breckon moved to Australia in 1981, where he met and then married Anne in 1984.

The couple based themselves in Clermont, central Queensland, operating a mobile engineering business which carried out on-farm maintenance of plant and equipment.

"We had just the one vehicle, which we fitted out with a diesel generator and welding gear," Paul Breckon recalls. "We went from farm to farm repairing whatever needed fixing and we also picked up work from mines in the area. At that stage it was gold mining, but these days it's cattle and coal."

These days it is also XLERPLATE®, a brand of high quality hot rolled plate steel products from BlueScope Steel, which plays a central role in the business of Paul Breckon Steel Fabrications Pty Ltd.

"As business grew we soon recognised the need to establish a workshop and a base," Mr Breckon said. "We were starting to do more and more steel fabrication work for customers and we also wanted to fabricate some of the farm equipment which we had begun to design."

That decision to establish a workshop proved to be a good one. Today the company has 20 employees, provides a vital service for farms and mines in the region and sells its own brand of farm equipment throughout Australia.

"We've certainly moved on from those early days, but it was the initial practice of dealing with customers at their farms and minesites which gave us the experience on which our success has been built," Paul Breckon said.

"When you are dealing with pastoral companies or mining operations at isolated locations you soon learn the importance of quality and reliability. We found that customers in rural Australia will support you, if you can provide those two things."

Paul Breckon also sees a strong preference among his customers to purchase Australian-made goods - something he supports through his own use of XLERPLATE®.

"We purchase steel through OneSteel Distribution as we need it and it is at the heart of just about everything we do," he said. "This is a business which changes from month to month according to the jobs we take on, so we need to be able to rely on our suppliers and the quality of their products."

As well as making cattle handling equipment, stick rakes, earthmoving accessories, roller mills, and other farm goods, Paul Breckon Steel Fabrications also takes on larger repair and fabrication projects for the mining industry.

"We use 250 grade XLERPLATE® in 25mm to 40mm thicknesses in general fabricating work in both the mining and rural sectors."

"The business is a registered user of the Australian Made brand and we like to highlight the quality of materials which go into our jobs. Often we are competing against imports and it gives us a boost to know that what we use isn't just the best that the Australian steel industry can produce. It's also world standard."

"I attend a lot of field days throughout Queensland and also travel to the Northern Territory, so I still get to meet customers face to face. However, even when you are selling equipment over the internet - as we do - it is good to be able to offer your customers the assurance that you are using the best available materials. We constantly get asked who supplies our steel and if it is from an Australian company."

"By using XLERPLATE® we know that is the case. When you see the high percentage of repeat business that we generate, it is obvious that our customers agree."