Exports to Europe win awards

Europe Business Review, March, 2000

Australian companies exporting goods and services to EU markets - from software to hardwood, from fast ferries to fine wines comprised more than half the 60 finalists in the 1999 Australian Export Awards.

The 36th annual presentations of the prestigious awards were made at a ceremony in Melbourne at which the keynote speaker was Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard.

The overall winner - Australian Exporter of the Year, an award sponsored by DHL - was Pipers Brook, the Tasmanian vineyard and winemaker which exports premium wines to UK and other EU markets.

Pipers Brook also won the Commonwealth Bank Small-to-Medium Manufacturer Award.

Announcing the awards, Prime Minister Howard praised the efforts of Australian exporters, who generated A$111.8 billion in sales in 1998-99.

Pipers Brook has two wineries and 10 vineyards in Tasmania and won the award for doubling the size of its exports in 1998-99. Overseas sales now make up 30 percent of total turnover.

At London's premier wine show in 1999, the Pipers Brook 1995 Ninth Island Chardonnay was rated wine of the year.

The awards to Pipers Brook, a company established in 1974, came after a costly setback last January when vandals ruined about 100,000 litres of premium wine worth over $2 million when they turned on taps of storage vats.

The other award finalists and category winners were: Bosch Australia, based in Melbourne a German-owned manufacturer of automotive electrical and electronic equipment. It won the Large Advanced Manufacturer Award, sponsored by 0 erseas Trading Magazine.

Overseas sales by Bosch were $2 million in 1990 and by 1998 exports had grown to more than $180 million, representing 34 percent of total sales. International customers include many of the world's largest vehicle manufacturers in Europe.

In the same category, a leading finalist was Incat of Hobart which has built around 40 percent of the world's large fast passenger and vehicle ferries, and exported almost $1 billion worth of them.

Incat ferries operate in the UK, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and elsewhere. Three Incat-built vessels have won the Hales Trophy, the fastest Atlantic crossing by a passenger ship.

In 1996-99 sales included $65 million to Denmark, $150 to UK, $50 million to Italy, and $205 million to Spain. Exports this year are expected to be $200 million. Incat has sales and service bases in Denmark, Britain and USA.

Pharmacia & Upjohn is a multinational (AngloSwedish) pharmaceutical company which exports through a world network of 134 sales offices. In 1998-99, its Australian exports significantly increased from 60 to 78 percent of total sales of $101 million, including sales to Europe.

The Australian headquarters of Pharmacia & Upjohn is in Perth, WA, where it employs 284 people. It supplies export markets with over 100 products.

TNA Australia manufactures food packaging systems, with 92 percent of revenues from exports.

The Sydney-based company has current annual turnover of $43 million with overseas divisions in UK and US. About 40 percent of TNA revenue is from Europe.

TNA sells its packaging systems to multinational food groups in EU, Eastern Europe and US.

In the Large Manufacture category, R.M. Williams established in 1932, is an Australian icon - an imag and symbol of the outback many urban Australians as well as export customers.

The Adelaide-based company began by supplying work clothes for Australia's pastoral industry. In the 1980s, a R.M. Williams store was opened in UK. In the 1990s, exports expanded 400 percent to about $6.5 million out of total sales of $44 million. Export markets include UK, EU, Asia, NZ, US and South Africa.

In the Hewlett-Packard Information Industries Award category the finalists were:

Softlink, a Brisbane software exporter, won the award. It increased its overseas sales in 1998-99 from 47 percent to 69 percent. The main markets are in UK and US.

The company, established in 1983, is a developer of library automation and management software packages, with its systems used in over 8,000 libraries.

Future School, located on the central coast of NSW, exports audio-visual education systems, with 85 percent of its revenues earned in 17 countries overseas. It exports to UK, EU, US and elsewhere.

The company makes and exports on-line operating and delivery systems and educational interactive multimedia CD-ROM software for language and maths teaching.

Open Software Associates is a Melbourne-based software company specialising in products and services for delivering and updating e-business solutions.

Its exports consistently exceed half of revenue - $5.6 million out of $10 million in 1998-99, a 25 percent increase in overseas sales. Europeans were the largest customers, paying about $3.8 million in that period.

Protocom Development, located in Canberra, increased its software exports in 1999 from 59 percent to 91 percent of total sales.

Export revenues rose over 200 percent, with Western Europe and North America the main markets. The company specialises in software for IT security enforcement.