Albany International rationalisation puts Central Coast in spotlight for the future

While sounding complicated the restructure will impact on each of the companies three divisions here at Gosford.

Firstly, Albany has sold its global filtration technology business to an Australian private equity group, for $45 million.
The new company, All Filtration Technologies Australia Pty Ltd (AFT), has purchased the business with all 77 staff presently employed throughout Australia being invited to join the new venture. AFT will lease their existing floor space at Albany’s Lisarow plant where the majority of the 77 staff are based and continue to manufacture filtration media for its global market.

AFTs filtration products are used in a wide range of industrial applications including filter bags for power stations, filtration media for mining and mineral refining. These products have been developed by Albany’s technical staff at Lisarow over some 30 years. Their success has resulted in their products being sold to customers throughout the world. General Manager, Michael Gerakios, will continue with the new company and carry it forward.

“Albany is the world’s largest manufacturer of Paper Machine Clothing (felts that are used in the manufacture of paper) and the filtration business was never a core business. With this move we have the opportunity for further investment that will see AFT grow into a $100 million a year business compared with our present turnover of $40 million,” said Mr Gerakios.
“We are world leaders in this technology and I am proud that we have been able to keep the business in Australia and on the Central Coast,” he said.

Albany Door Systems, a division of Albany International, operates from a factory at West Gosford and employs a total of 53 staff across Australia selling, manufacturing and servicing Rapid-Roll Doors. Albany International Pty Ltd Managing Director, Ken Knight, said that due to cost and market pressures the company would relocate its manufacturing of their Doors to China. “We will import doors in kit form for final assembly at customer sites. This will result in a reduction of staff of 9,” he said. The operation at West Gosford will close and relocated to Lisarow.

The major part of Albany’s restructure will be in what is known as their Paper Machine Clothing (PMC) division which manufactures press felts for use in the making of paper and fibre-cement products. Over the next fifteen months the manufacture of press felts for the paper industry will be phased out and moved to a new state of the art plant in China. This will result in the loss of 115 jobs at Lisarow with 82 being retained.

"While the job losses at Lisarow are very regrettable, we have good severance arrangements and have an outplacement program aimed at helping displaced employees find future employment. Fortunately we have quite some time to work through this process.
The Lisarow plant will then focus on the manufacture of felts for the fibre-cement industry and while the Albany plant at Lisarow is already the world’s biggest supplier of fibre cement felts the plan is to grow this further.
 “Our challenge will now be to grow this part of our business into a long term and sustainable asset. As leaders in this technology and with ongoing research and development we aim to maintain and expand our lead in the global market place,” said Mr Knight.

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