Australia’s Stirling Machinery enters NZ market

Australian equipment supplier for the wood processing industry, Stirling Machinery has entered the New Zealand market to not just supply and install premium machines but to provide a fully integrated service, from consultancy through to servicing. A division of tooling supplier, Accurate, Stirling has enjoyed strong and steady growth in Australia since its establishment five years ago.

Indeed, Accurate customers have appreciated the link between machinery and tooling and being able to source both from the one organisation. Managing Director Craig Honeyman says expanding into machinery was a natural progression. “These days, all businesses absolutely must diversify, and strangely enough, COVID-19 has been a particularly positive driving force for that. When we established Stirling Machinery in 2015, our intention was not just to sell machines but to add a whole new level of service and consultancy to our relationships with our partners and that includes understanding their businesses and helping to grow them.”

Historically, single, standalone machines have been an effective plan but Craig says that today, and into the future, integration is key, even if it means integrating machines from different families. A well-thought-out, integrated system is not just about the movement of timber from one machine to another, but also about communication around production errors, uptime and, importantly, safety systems.

“We have a deep knowledge around wood processing machines,” Craig says, “and we know how to get the best out of them. Stirling has become the cornerstone of our business and Accurate feeds into it beautifully by connecting our partners with the very best consumables to produce optimal results.”

In Australia, Stirling’s partners have attested to this. Chris Skeels-Piggins, CEO of newcomer CLT manufacturer CLTP Tasmania says Stirling took the time to fully understand their business and what they were trying to achieve. “Every step of the way, Stirling showed that they could partner with us in a meaningful way. We weren’t looking for a quick set-and-forget arrangement. We wanted a genuine collaboration that would see us through from consultancy and installation to operation and beyond.”

Chris also says that in their consultancy Stirling made strong recommendations for diversification potential, a move that paid off in pandemic times. “Thanks to the flexibility of the machinery Stirling recommended in their proposal, we’ve been able to focus on supplying materials to the retail sector and this has been underpinning the business.”

Craig Honeyman explains that Stirling’s commitment to next-generation machinery is only part of the puzzle. “We deliver a complete service to our partners, from understanding their business and business needs, right through to implementation and ongoing support.” Stirling offers an array of high-end names in wood processing machines and is the sole agent for Italy’s Bottene, as well as partnering with Friulmac and Salvador.

Source: Stirling Machinery