GUD, owners of Ryco Filters, as well as Sunbeam (electrical goods) and Victa (push mowers), all brand icons on Australia, ceased production of filters here in March.
Ryco would hold the majority of the OEM and premium aftermarket here and New Zealand. They also have factories in New Zealand and South Africa, which I'm assuming will take what was produced in Oz.
They had reduced their Oz workforce from 600 six years ago to just 50 employees in Melbourne.
I read about it in an article in Time on the rising influence a fast moving China has on Australia.
GUD did this with Sunbeam several years ago, with now only a design office in Sydney, and all manufacturing undertaken under licence in China by 60 different suppliers.
"The total cost of labour for a process worker is $A49,000 a year. In China, it's $A2,500 a year. Add the cost of shipping and other things, and we can employ 15 people in China for the cost of one Australian worker"
"Factoring in longer work hours and leave, the Chinese worker will also toil for 100 days a year longer than his Australian counterpart. Then there's the cost of components. Some companies can now land inputs from China at the price they used to pay for raw materials."
I'm not going to try and comment or analyse, just a FYI.
Ryco would hold the majority of the OEM and premium aftermarket here and New Zealand. They also have factories in New Zealand and South Africa, which I'm assuming will take what was produced in Oz.
They had reduced their Oz workforce from 600 six years ago to just 50 employees in Melbourne.
I read about it in an article in Time on the rising influence a fast moving China has on Australia.
GUD did this with Sunbeam several years ago, with now only a design office in Sydney, and all manufacturing undertaken under licence in China by 60 different suppliers.
"The total cost of labour for a process worker is $A49,000 a year. In China, it's $A2,500 a year. Add the cost of shipping and other things, and we can employ 15 people in China for the cost of one Australian worker"
"Factoring in longer work hours and leave, the Chinese worker will also toil for 100 days a year longer than his Australian counterpart. Then there's the cost of components. Some companies can now land inputs from China at the price they used to pay for raw materials."
I'm not going to try and comment or analyse, just a FYI.
