Seeley International’s Albury factory turns 20

Seeley International’s Albury factory, home of the multi award-winning Braemar Ducted Gas Heaters, celebrates a milestone birthday this month, turning 20 on Tuesday, July 6. The factory employs around 100 people in the Albury/Wodonga area.

General Manager of the Albury operation, Barry Mynott, said that the history of the Braemar brand went back to the late 1930s.

“It’s a brand with a proud history and is the oldest of the Seeley International brands,” he said.

“Seeley purchased the operation in the mid 1990s, when this factory had only been open a few years.

“Since then, we’ve continued to build on past successes – just this year, our Braemar 5.6 star ducted gas heaters won the Australian Consumer/Trade Product of the year award.

“This follows a string of national awards recognizing the Albury-designed and manufactured range of gas heaters as best-in-class.

“And, with orders for the groundbreaking new Climate Wizard indirect evaporative cooler now also ramping up, the future is looking pretty positive.”

Mr Mynott said that the factory would celebrate the milestone with a barbecue lunch and a short presentation ceremony.

“We’ll also use the occasion to present service recognition awards to some of our many long-serving staff members – some who were working with Braemar even before we moved to Albury,” he said.

Engineering manager Mark de Koeyer is Braemar’s longest-serving employee, with links to the company going back more than 30 years. Mark and his highly-skilled local team developed the acclaimed Braemar gas heating range through an uncompromising focus on product safety, quality, operating efficiency and ease of installation.

Seeley International founder and chairman, Mr Frank Seeley AM, congratulated Barry and his team on 20 years of history and great results.

“It takes a special type of person to be part of an operation that is as focussed as we are on innovation and quality – and we’ve been lucky enough to have hundreds of them on our team in Albury over the past 20 years,” Mr Seeley said.

“They just keep delivering and getting better every year.”

Brief history
The first Braemar operation began in Abbotsford in Melbourne in 1938, making wood or briquette-fired hot water services. In 1948, Braemar began manufacturing gas-fired hot water services and started making gas space heaters in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, it was producing evaporative coolers and a range of other products.

The huge expansion in product range and add-on services, as well as the number of factories, was unsustainable, though, and in the 1980s, the company consolidated its operations to concentrate on heating and cooling products.

In 1990, Braemar moved all of its manufacturing to the factory at Albury.

Seeley International bought the Braemar operations in the mid 1990s and moved production of evaporative coolers to its factory at Lonsdale in Adelaide.

Today, the Albury factory focuses on producing heaters (Braemar ducted gas and space heaters), and commercial coolers and now, the innovation revolution in cooling technology, the new Climate Wizard indirect evaporative cooler.

About Seeley International
Seeley International is Australia's largest air conditioning manufacturer and is market leader in the design and manufacture of ducted and portable cooling and heating systems for the home, commercial and industrial markets in Australia.

Known for its technical innovation, Seeley International’s brands include Breezair, Braemar, Coolair and Convair – and now, Climate Wizard.

Based in Adelaide’s south and with factories in Adelaide and Albury, the company was founded by Frank Seeley, AM, who remains Chairman. The company has been manufacturing air conditioners since 1972 and, unlike many of its competitors, Seeley International designs and manufactures most of the components for its products within Australia.

Seeley International wins SA Family Business of the Year Award

Seeley International, along with its founder and Chairman, Frank Seeley AM, will represent South Australia at the 2010 Australian Family Business of the Year Awards – to be presented at Family Business Australia’s National Conference in September this year.

Mr Seeley was named state finalist in the Jason Lea Award to recognise an ideas person who has demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurship.  The Jason Lea Award winner must have a strong commitment to excellence and family business best practices, a ‘can do’ attitude and a capacity for hard work. Generosity of spirit was also a strong feature of Jason Lea’s character – and is highly regarded in judging the National Award named in his honour.

The company founded by Mr Seeley, Seeley International, won the first generation category of the South Australian Family Business of the Year awards. The awards celebrate the achievements of SA family businesses which aspire to best practice by professionalising their systems, structures and processes and contributing to the prosperity and culture of the state and the nation.

Mr Seeley said that he and his family were proud to be recognised for their efforts and to represent South Australia at the national awards.

“We win many product awards at Seeley International, but this award is particularly special as it recognises how my family has worked to build a successful company.”

Mr Chris Johnston - Chairman of the SA Chapter of Family Business Australia’s Major Events Committee, said that the family business sector employed more than half of SA’s private sector workforce.

“Family Business Australia, as the peak body for family businesses, is proud to acknowledge outstanding family businesses this year,” he said.

Seeley International was founded by Frank Seeley in his garage in 1972. Family members joined the company over time, relieving Frank and his wife Kathy from holding nearly every position in the company. Today, Seeley International is the largest air conditioning manufacturer in Australia.  The company is a global leader in the development and commercialisation of energy efficient climate-control appliances.  Seeley International exports to more than 110 countries and has sales offices in the US, UK, Spain and Italy.

Local air conditioning icon hits milestone – and the end of an era

Seeley International hits a milestone and sees the end of an era this week. The millionth motor has rolled off the production line at St Marys, but the line will be shut down for the final time, as the company prepares to consolidate its Adelaide operations at Lonsdale.

Seeley International Chairman and company founder, Frank Seeley AM, said that bringing Seeley International’s two Adelaide operations at St Marys and Lonsdale together on the existing Lonsdale site would support increased efficiency.

“This move will not only allow us to take advantage of the newer, more advanced facilities at the Lonsdale operation, but will allow us to operate more efficiently in one location,” Mr Seeley said.

The move has had particular meaning for one Seeley International employee.

“We sent one of our engineers, Peter McBratney, to Germany to source, negotiate, purchase and then install our first ever plant and machinery here in Adelaide, at St Marys,” Mr Seeley said.

“It was important that we have a local production line, so we could inject some competition into manufacturing the motors used in air conditioning, as well as to develop better ways of designing and building the motors.

“And, the same man who set up the production line is the one in charge of dismantling it - Peter McBratney is still with the company 30 years on!”

The motors are used in the locally-made, market leading Breezair air conditioners, which were the first air conditioners to be made entirely from plastic.

While working as a portable air conditioner salesman in his early career, Mr Seeley realised that evaporative coolers had a major problem – corrosion.

“By replacing the metal parts with plastic, we have overcome that problem,” he said.

“At the time, everyone said it couldn’t be done, but we did it anyway, and now it’s an industry standard.”

Seeley International’s latest innovation revolution in cooling technology is Climate Wizard.

“Moving to Lonsdale will allow us to scale up Climate Wizard production as demand for the new product increases,” Mr Seeley said.

“We may be moving our head office south, but our global business results are very much heading north!”

Climate Wizard wins Product Excellence Award

Seeley International’s revolutionary new product, Climate Wizard, was this week named the winner of the prestigious 2010 Product Excellence Award at the ARBS (Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services) Industry Awards.

 Climate Wizard was also a finalist in the Environmentally Sustainable Design Award category.

The award follows Climate Wizard being named “Energy Efficient product of the year” at the Greenplumbers awards in October 2009. It was the second year running that Seeley International won that award - in 2008, our Braemar Ecostar 5.6 Star ducted gas heater was named Energy Efficient product of the year.

 Seeley International founder and chairman, Frank Seeley, said he was delighted to see the product recognised.

 “Climate Wizard is the kind of innovative revolution in technology that comes only once in a hundred years,” he said.

 “It represents the culmination of 17 years of development work and shows that Australian companies are still making cutting edge contributions to product development.”

 Mr Seeley said that the Climate Wizard technology delivered superior cooling but at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

“This will have benefits not only for residential applications, but can also significantly reduce cooling costs for businesses and industry.

"The award is also a great recognition for all the staff here at Seeley who have worked on the Climate Wizard project over the last 17 years."

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