2025 was a big year for Andromeda Industries with interest in the Australian made and designed Superflex steel cables and slings, as well as the flat woven steel slings, growing domestically and in significant international markets. Customer Relations Manager Geoff Bower, and Company Director, Annette Williams provide more details.
“A key strategy for this year was to expand our footprint overseas and I’m delighted to say we’ve achieved this,” said Annette. “We attended the Big 5 Construct in Saudi, we attended the Crane Association of New Zealand’s (CANZ) conference and exhibition, The International Distributors meeting for the Global Lifting Group in Thailand, as well as the Associated Wire Rope Fabricators (AWRF) conference and exhibition in Denver, Colorado. As a result of these events, we have generated a lot of interest from these markets as well as from countries like Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
“The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is our biggest export market, and we have a network of resellers and distributors there, which we are looking to grow as well as expanding our footprint in other large markets like the US, where the use of wire rope in lifting is far more prolific,” she said.
The marketing of the Andromeda Industries brand and the various product lines it represents has also been a strong focus throughout 2025 said Geoff.
“We’ve brought together a dedicated marketing team which has been a real success. Everything that leaves the factory has the same branding and messaging which is really helping, and we’ve now got our Australian Made certification and the logo on all our lifting gear, which we are fiercely proud of,” he said.
“The Australian Made certification and use of the logo benefits in so many ways. It has been well received by the market and customers are now seeing it on all of our products. It reinforces that we do manage the design, engineering and manufacturing processes in-house providing that level of quality assurance.
“With major government, Tier One and mining projects, there has to be a certain percentage of local content. With the renewable sector, projects are requiring up to 50 per cent local content. The Australian Made certification reinforces the point that we are designing engineering and manufacturing Australian products by our local team. This year, we’ve taken this strategy a step further with local community engagement,” he said.
During the year Andromeda Industries embarked on a local community engagement program designed to promote Tamworth’s manufacturing capabilities as well as the employment opportunities within the crane and lifting industry.
“We worked with a number of manufacturers, as well as CICA, and invited local high schools to tour our facility. With each group we explained more about the local manufacturing community and distributed CICA material which explain the career opportunities and the available apprenticeship and training opportunities within the crane and the lifting industry. The strategy has been working really well, and we have generated a lot of interest from the students,” said Geoff.
The Andromeda Industries team has also focused on its manufacturing capabilities and invested in a new 800 tonne hydraulic Swaging Press from Talurit®. It’s a medium range swager which comes equipped with several value-adding features as standard. It is a safe and easy-to-use all-around machine which is perfect for medium-size wire ropes.
“With the new 800 tonne Swaging Press we have doubled our capacity for our medium-sized range of slings. This is important because we can see the combination of exports and domestic demand will require a significant increase in productivity, which we now have,” said Geoff.
“We are also in the process of implementing the M1 ERP Manufacturing Software which will provide real time operational visibility and cut costs while increasing productivity. With this all-in-one solution, we can minimise costly mistakes and leverage more accurate scheduling and material ordering (well that’s what the brochure says), so we have been focused on our manufacturing processes and capabilities.”
Throughout 2025 Andromeda Industries has attended important events successfully promoting the range of products to the various industry sectors including Defence, manufacturing and the energy sector.
“With the transition to renewables we have been receiving enquiries from the electrical services industry and in fact, we recently received two of our largest orders ever from this sector.
“We’ve been receiving enquiries for our specialised products including our platted wire ropes, so the enquiries are not specifically about lifting, which is interesting,” said Geoff.
“There’s a lot happening in the Defence sector both in Western Australia, with the expansion of the Henderson Defence Precinct, and in South Australia with the Osborne Naval Yard. There’s a lot of lifting going to happen with these projects through there and we are seeing a lot of our heavy-lift products going in to service that demand.
“The level of enquiry isn’t dropping off either, in fact the first four days of December saw our quotes at their highest level ever.
“There hasn’t been a spike and then nothing, they have been consistently high. We know the events work for us because we saw a significant increase in enquiries from New Zealand following the CANZ event in Wellington and our distributors there, including Cookes and Shaws, have kept us busy, which is great.
“2026 will bring more development, including an increase in the heavy-lift range of products and investment in the engineering division. That really is a case of the Phoenix rising from the ashes and a lot of what the engineering team is working on will be really interesting.”