Ballarat shines for the 2017 Business Awards

The Delacombe manufacturer’s passion, innovation and investment in technologies earned Federation Business School Business of the Year in a gala dinner at the Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre on Thursday night. 

Their hard work and sharp business model encompassed all that was celebrated in the Federation Business School Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards.

For Albins director Steven Nicholson, the humbling honour was community recognition that manufacturing in Ballarat was very much still an alive industry.

“It’s about innovation and diversity in manufacturing,” Mr Nicholson said. “We supply on a whole lot of levels across the world  we’re not just hinged on the one thing, like defence or motorsport. There are so many aspects of the industry to be excited about.”

Albins Performance Transmissions, established in 1978, made a name as a high-performance drive-line manufacturer and a global leader in off-road racing transmissions. Albins’ trans-axle and inline transmission technology has been used in some of the biggest races in the world, such as the Baja and Dakar rallies.

The company is also the official control transmission supplier for V8 Supercars.

The Global Financial Crisis forced the company to consolidate and diversified. In time, this was a move that sparked Albins to grow, adapting its work into supplying military land systems.

In April the company added a further 20 employees to meet the growing demand which came from securing a major contract with the Australian Defence Force. The business received a grant from the state government to further expand its defence manufacturing capabilities.

“As Australians, we’re proud to support the defence forces any way we can so they can do their job,” Mr Nicholson said.

Albins staff were also keen to work with local customers in making their ideas a reality and to help show what is possible.

RE-LIVE THE NIGHT AS IT UNFOLDED HERE

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