TGOOD TARGETS BRISBANE IN AUSSIE ASSAULT

CHINA'S leading prefabricated power solutions company is expanding to Australia and has chosen Brisbane to lead the charge.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange-listed TGOOD has officially opened an office in Brisbane, after recently expanding to North America, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and South America.

Founded by German and Chinese engineers in 2004, the company provides vertically integrated substation solutions and manufactures medium and high-voltage power equipment.

This includes secondary substation kiosks in the suburbs that control residential power supply, generally owned and operated by local energy providers, as well as the larger zone stations within prefabricated buildings used to manage power in mining, oil, gas and shipping ports.

Former Siemens Australia national sales manager Chris Ball was appointed as CEO last year, and has been driving the launch since incorporating the subsidiary in July.

"There's a significant amount of challenges when you're globalising what was initially a domestic Chinese product," Ball says.

"For Australia, that's understanding the market requirements from a technical point of view. We've conducted extensive type testing in Europe for our equipment to ensure that it meets Australian standards.

"What the market and customers require for real support is regional competency. We've set up a sales and marketing organisation with delivery and engineering capability as well.

"We're now in a position to hit the Australian market and engage customers."

TGOOD Australia plans to target power and water utilities, engineering procurement construction firms and resources companies as clients. The company is also poised to tender for a number of infrastructure projects across Brisbane, including the underground bus and train project.

The renewable energy sector is also proving to be an attractive opportunity for the company, providing wind or solar plants with power transmission and distribution to the grid.

"There is intense pressure on these industry sectors to deliver significant savings to the bottom line whether as overall project costs or reductions in capital expenditure," Ball says.

"Power equipment is often critical path in the delivery of their major projects and nimbleness and flexibility is crucial."

He says this is where TGOOD Australia comes in as a game-changer in the industry, with half the lead time to deliver equipment compared to competitors.

A high-voltage switchboard can take up to 26 weeks before being shipped, while TGOOD's lead time ranges from eight to 10 weeks depending on the product.

The company has added a 400,000sqm manufacturing facility to existing operations in Qindao and Chengdu to meet future demand.

"We've built a large factory to cater for the next 10 years of global growth, whereas our competitors'  factories are full and over-utilised," Ball says.

"Dramatically reduced lead times equals dramatically reduced overall project costs and often, dramatically increased productivity.

"Other suppliers are often heavily compartmentalised in their processes and sometimes only willing to use their own equipment. If we're doing a solution, we're more than happy to be flexible."

TGOOD Australia will open another office in Sydney next month, as well as launch its own TGOOD secondary substation kiosk to the market in August.