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NEWS
VGA celebrates 60,000th Wacol truck
Volvo Group Australia celebrates epic production milestone at its Brisbane factory…Volvo Group Australia (VGA) held a ceremony at its Wacol plant in Brisbane today to celebrate a significant milestone in local manufacturing, as the 60,000th truck built at the factory rolled off the production line.
While many would have you believe that automotive manufacturing is dead in Australia, VGA would beg to differ. Volvo trucks have been rolling off the Wacol line since 1972, with Mack trucks also being assembled at the plant from 2002. Between the two brands, 60,000 units have left the factory – roughly 44,000 Volvos and 16,000 Macks.
The milestone was celebrated with the unveiling of truck number 60,000, a Volvo FH16 Globetrotter, and truck number 60,001, a Mack Super Liner. Both prime movers proudly carried the 'Made in Australia' logo, celebrating the local design, engineering and manufacturing that has helped both brands build market share and a solid reputation for withstanding our harsh local conditions.
On hand to witness the occasion was Max Winkless, who was instrumental in convincing Volvo to begin manufacturing locally. He was also responsible for selecting the Wacol site – a few other locations were considered before settling on Brisbane.
"Volvo certainly recognized it did not have the product depth to take over the Australian market as we had planned, and it agreed we should build a plant here and build trucks for Australia," Mr Winkless said.
"Brisbane, through my eyes, was quite attractive because I knew there were a lot of technical experts up here. Then we spotted this factory here, which was an abandoned Nuffield plant – they used to build Mini Minors here – and we did a deal with the Queensland Government and took it over."
Peter Voorhoeve, President of Volvo Trucks Australia (pictured, left), spoke passionately about the local manufacturing facility.
"We manufacture here with Australian families and, with that, we support the Australian economy as well," he said.
"They are Australian trucks, built by Australians, for Australian transport operators. And we have done this for a long time.
"Australia is the most demanding transport environment in the world. It's a gigantic country, with not that many people, not that many trains, and high temperatures, so it's a different range of trucks that we need to make here.
"We need to be here to see what the environment is like. We need to be here to listen to our customers and see what they need. That is the way you need to operate in Australia. In order for us to be successful, and for our customers to be successful, we need to be close to them – we need to be here. That's why we have our operations over here."
And it would seem that view is not going to change in a hurry.
"In the last six years alone, we have invested $27.5 million in the factory here," Mr Voorhoeve said.
"We are, right now, upgrading our chassis preparation line worth another $3.5 million. Today is about the factory – about the people and the Australian families that build these trucks.
"People are our biggest asset and we are blessed with a fantastic, highly skilled workforce here in Brisbane. We have 1500 people working directly for Volvo Group Australia – 540 of them are in the factory and 50 of them are in the engineering department, seeing how we can transplant the global architecture of the Volvo Group into the Australian environment.
"All the other people are in the service network, the sales network and helping our customers to make sure that their assets are utilised to the highest level. It's a people business, and we really have fantastic people. You can see that, because the product is fantastic."
The commemorative trucks will not sit idle for long, with the Volvo going to work as the new prime mover for the ATA Safety Truck, while the Mack will be delivered to a customer in the near future.
No, automotive manufacturing in Australia isn't dead – quite the opposite, in fact.
Throughout the event, which was held in the middle of the factory complex, more new Volvos and Macks rolled out of the factory. With the current production levels at 15 units a day (across the two brands) and a solid book of orders, it shouldn't be too long before we see number 75,000 come to life…
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Written byDave Whyte
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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