Manufacturing News

John Harris retires from ADC Krone

John Harris has retired from ADC Krone at Berkeley Vale where he was Manufacturing Director. Mr Harris joined Krone, as it was then named, some twenty years ago as Manufacturing Manager and became Manufacturing Director with responsibility for Indo Pacific Operations when the company was bought out by US company, ADC, three years ago.

Mr Harris’s manufacturing career covers a fifty year lifespan. He joined British Leyland as an apprentice toolmaker and remained with the car maker until joining poker machine company, Aristocrat, as Production Engineering Manager, staying with them for seventeen years before joining Krone.

“When I joined Krone the company’s turnover was $20 million per annum and they employed 86 people,” he said. “Today the Australian operation has a turnover of $70 million and employs 260 people.”

Mr Harris said that he wants to continue as President of the Central Coast Manufacturers’ Association and as a Director of the Central Coast Australian Technical College. “I now have the time to help promote manufacturing on the Central Coast so I am looking forward to that,” he said.

Gala Ball for Central Coast manufacturers

The Central Coast Manufacturers’ Association will hold its 5th Annual Innovation Awards and Gala Ball at Kooindah Waters on Saturday May 25th.

In calling for local manufacturers to nominate for the Awards, President, John Harris said that with manufacturing employing around ten percent of the regional workforce the manufacturing sector is an important contributor to our economy. “The Central Coast has many companies who are highly innovative and produce some pretty ingenious products.  But not everyone knows about them. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate an important industry and its leaders,” he said.

Some of the companies that have won awards in the past include:

• Sharpe Bros. (Aust) Pty Ltd, for designing and building the ‘Sidewinder’ machine for repairing and widening roads;
• Sulo, for the design and manufacture of  the SULO Organics Collection System;
• Leda-Vannaclip, for the research and development of their high speed Bi-Fold Gate;
• E-Bisprint, for their unique online application that automatically generates press-ready artwork for printing;
• Pacific Labels, for installing a new state-of-the-art pressure sensitive label printing machine; and
•  ADC Krone, for developing the technology to produce prototypes within three days for evaluation.

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