A medium-sized Adelaide business has shown there’s more to life than assembling cars. Redarc, a Lonsdale-based manufacturer of high-end auto-electronic components, was named 2014 Telstra Australian Business of the Year in Melbourne last night.
Its success, however, owes much to the car-making sector, to government grants, university education and the bold vision of its owners Anthony and Michele Kittel.
Anthony Kittel is a former manager at ROH Wheels, a company that existed off the back of the car-making sector; Redarc’s advisory board is chaired by former Mitsubishi Motors managing director Tom Phillips.
The company supplies battery-charging, portable solar, electronic safety and voltage-converter products to local and international customers including 4WD enthusiasts, caravan-towing grey nomads, and the bus, rail, trucking, mining and emergency vehicle industries.
Redarc is also one of the few examples of successful use of government grants.
In 2006, it was awarded $1.6 million in federal funds to help take its unique automatic car battery charger to market.
In 2007, Redarc received $1.435 million from the Federal Government and $200,000 from the South Australian Government to expand its operations.
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In 2011, the company received a further $900,000 under the SA Innovation and Investment Fund.
The money has been ploughed into an Innovation Centre and export focus.
Innovation and skills training transformed the business into an Australian-owned and operated diversified manufacturer of electronic accessories and power sources.
Anthony Kittel, Redarc’s chief executive, said at the awards ceremony in Melbourne that the secrets of the company’s success were “continually investing a minimum of 15 per cent of our sales revenue back into research and having about 25 per cent of our employees working in R&D and innovation”.
“As an advanced manufacturer we need a highly skilled and empowered workforce. The commitment of the Redarc employees to learning and embracing training is impressive. Without a highly skilled workforce, our product wouldn’t be at the technology level it is.”
Kittel and his team were recognised by the Telstra Awards judges for having a huge pipeline of ideas that were turned into a stream of product development that drives Redarc’s growth.
Also the national winner of the Medium Business Award category, Redarc has a distribution arm in France, sells its battery management products into countries from Iceland to Spain, and has medium-term plans to design and manufacture in the US.
Will Irving, group managing director of Telstra Business, said the 2014 national winners were trail-blazers who excelled in their ability to be brilliantly different and change industries by either creating new businesses or thinking about old business models in new ways.
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“Redarc is a high-growth, high-quality manufacturer that has focused on innovation, deep customer understanding, targeted marketing and investment in new capability,” Irving said.
“They demonstrate that with a very strategic focus on their value proposition, as well as partnerships with universities and high levels of investment in research and development and production quality, domestic manufacturers can capture value and not just survive, but thrive.
“The awards judges described Redarc as a financial success with impressive durability and robustness, high future potential, and significant investment in staff training and product development.”
Anthony Kittel was brought up in Hawker in in the state’s north and worked as a cadet with BHP in Whyalla before completing his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Australia in 1987.
He stayed on at BHP as a development engineer and in 1991 gained an MBA from the University of Adelaide. The following year he moved to ROH Wheels in Adelaide, where he was promoted to general manager at just 28.
“My biggest achievement, though, was deciding to buy my own company at the age of 32,” he told the university’s alumni magazine earlier this year.
Since he and Michele bought the business in 1997, it’s gone from employing eight people in a tin shed at Lonsdale to a company with $20 million revenue, 100 staff and international expansion plans.
In 2006, the Kittels decided to involve outsiders in the business when they established an advisory board.
The board is chaired by former Mitsubishi Motors managing director Tom Phillips.
“You have to make things empowered by technology or by distribution,” Kittel said in June after winning the state section of the awards.
“It’s about how to make sure the product is part of an overall solution to the customer … you need to have a great relationship with the people using the product. We spend a lot of time on the business model to get the product and distribution right.”
Kittel is hardly one to stand still.
Last year he completed the Owner/Presidents Management Program at Harvard Business School. He holds a Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a Fellow of the South Australian Governor’s Leadership Foundation program.
“I have continued studying throughout my life. You have to keep learning or you actually become a liability. You need to keep innovating and developing yourself.”
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