Top safety marketing floors
the opposition - and opens up US opportunities
 A
company which has grown in fewer than five years to
become a leading force in the Australian safety industry
now plans to transplant its success formula into the
huge US market.
The General Mat Company – winner of this year’s
Excellence in Sales and Marketing Award of the Parramatta
Regional Business Awards - has built up the most comprehensive
range of ergonomic, anti-fatigue and safety matting produced
specifically for the Australian industrial and commercial
market.
"We have grown exponentially by firstly tapping
into a market sector which was not being fully exploited,
then secondly by forming strategic alliances with suppliers
and distributors with outstanding attributes in particular
market sectors," says company founder and Managing
Director, Mr Michael Siegle.
"GMC recognised that the huge growth in safety awareness
in Australia was uneven. It was concentrated from the feet
up – employers were kitting out people with helmets,
goggles, gloves, jackets and boots, but they were sometimes
forgetting about the floor they stood on. This is despite
the fact that more than 7,000 injuries each year in the
New South Wales workforce alone result from ‘falls
on the same level’, according to figures from the
WorkCover Authority of NSW, costing the one State $86 million.
"It is estimated that 30 per cent of all accidents
in the workplace today are the result of slips, trips and
falls. Seventy per cent of these occur on flat surfaces
- which isn’t surprising when you look at the poor
state of the floors in some of our industries. It is now
manifestly understood that every cent spent on protective
clothing can be a total waste if an employee slips on a
greasy floor beneath his or her steel-capped, heatproof
boots," said Mr Siegle, whose company won the Peter
Hudson Award for Excellence in Sales and Marketing in the
Parramatta Awards, which are conducted by the Parramatta
Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Rydges
Hotels. The awards, for which 19 finalists were selected,
are vigorously contested by companies from one of Australia’s
major industrial and service company regions, Parramatta,
which lies at the geographical heart of Sydney.
Mr Siegle said the Parramatta award - which follows GMC’s
Australia Post Business Achiever awards in 1998 and 1999 – confirmed
the importance of clear business planning which firstly
identified a market opportunity then laid out a clear strategy
to attain it.
"Through strategic distribution alliances aimed
at key market sectors – including architectural,
automotive, building, construction, engineering, food,
government, hospitality, health, manufacturing, metal working,
mining, petroleum and gas, retail and transport – we
have opened up paths to markets which were wanting to achieve
the best safety standards, but which weren’t always
getting the product with which to do it", said Mr
Siegle, whose company and the Australian Building Services
Association (ABSA) recently exchanged letters of formal
agreement on an incentive scheme giving ABSA and all of
its 350 nationwide membership (and 25 associated companies)
a discount on GMC entrance matting product sold following
referrals from its members. BOC Gases has also concluded
an agreement with The GMC to distribute products through
more than 80 BOC Gas and Gear centres throughout Australia,
complementing GMC’s specialist distribution through
its nationwide network of distributors.
Mr Siegle says excellence in distribution must be complemented
at the other end of the supply chain by outstanding suppliers.
His company has formed alliances with world leaders in
their fields, with its performance making GMC exclusive
distributor for The Andersen Company of Dalton, Georgia,
USA, and the Tennessee Mat Company of Nashville, Tennessee,
USA, producer of the Wearwell brand. The President of the
Tennessee Mat Company Inc, Mr Elliot Greenberg, was in
Australia recently to congratulate the GMC distribution
network for helping the company to grow in a few short
years to become one of the Tennessee Mat Company’s
top 10 customers internationally. This year GMC was its
leading distributor worldwide for the third consecutive
year.
"Perhaps because Australia is a very competitive
environment - there are more suppliers, and relatively
fewer customers - our people have had to be outstandingly
better to rise above the opposition in terms of their product,
presentation and marketing
"Whatever the reason, our American suppliers are
so impressed with Australia’s performance and methods
that they are urging us to establish ourselves in the US,
a step which we plan to initiate in the New Year," said
Mr Siegle. "The Australian market is our first priority,
because this is where our success is built, but there is
no reason why we cannot build a similar network in the
US, which we intend to do. While all markets have their
differences, we believe the standards of excellence achieved
by our distribution can be replicated in the US. With the
support of our major suppliers there, we plan to develop
this potential, said Mr Siegle,
GMC’s product list in Australia includes such internationally
recognised brands as Wearwell, Waterhog, WeldSafe, Diamond-Plate,
KleenSweep and WorkSafe.
"Virtually every industry – hotel, industrial,
government and private offices, warehouse, indoor or outdoor
sites, chemical, food handling and processing, markets – have
seen safety and cleaning costs reduced significantly by
safety, anti-fatigue and ergonomic matting.
"Huge developments in the safety levels expected
by employees in the workplace kicked off demand in recent
years but the momentum increased when it was recognised
some of our range even reduces workers’ compensations
claims and cleaning costs.
"I guess we fill an obvious void in today’s
safety-driven work culture. We can only get bigger," said
Mr Siegle, whose recent marketing initiatives include a
mat renting scheme as an alternative to purchase. To make
the company’s products accessible to all levels of
industry and commerce, clients can rent GMC products through
its Flexirent scheme over a 24 to 36 month period.
"Especially when you’re the leader, you can’t
stand still. You always have to be standing in the customers’ shoes,
seeing the market their way, and being the first to define
and satisfy needs. The old days are gone when companies
got a good distribution arrangement and sat back to wait
for the money to flow in. Without good marketing, all that
will flow in these days is water as your ship goes under."
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