Screen Technics turns 25
On 24 October this year, Screen Technics will celebrate its 25th birthday. Jacob Harris has a look at the company’s unconventional origins.
Screen Technics has long been a stalwart of the Australian AV industry. So it’s strange to think that this favourite among integrators might not exist if it wasn’t for some particularly wild weather one week back in 1990…
“I entered the AV game because of rained,” says Screen Technics founder and managing director Greg Donovan.
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“When I was about 24 years old, a group of friends and I decided to all quit our jobs and go water skiing. But it rained a lot and the river down at Nowra flooded.”
Greg decided to get a job for a month while he waited for the water level to drop. Aiming for the closest job to his parent’s house, Greg landed the position of production manager at the now defunct Astralux projection screens.
By the time that month over, Greg had been convinced to stay and before long was running the business’ Sydney arm.
After a dispute led to Greg’s subsequent resignation, he decided to go into business for himself. With the help of friends and acquaintances, on 24 October 1990, he did just that. And so, Screen Technics was born.
“I started out by borrowing the corner of a factory and calling in all the favours I had. I even had people that were nice enough to lend me a powder coating plant of an evening when they weren’t using it. I was selling and installing during the day and making the stuff at night. I even started sleeping on a bench in the factory,” he says.
Greg steadily grew the business and just two years later bought Screen Technics’ first premises- a factory complete with a bed. Sleeping at work, and working right through the night were common practices in those formative years. Indeed, Greg’s drive to make Screen Technics prosper affected his sleeping arrangements on more levels than one.
“I was weird. Most people have a photo of their girlfriend in their wallet, but I had a photo of the factory I was going to buy. I had a girlfriend when I decided to go into business and my first corporate decision was to break up with her – because I knew the road ahead wasn’t going to be easy,” he says.
It certainly wasn’t an easy road. Although the company has grown steadily since its inception, at times it has held on by the skin of its teeth. Greg recalls living hand to mouth while moving into Screen Technics’ current premises in Moss Vale back in 2000.
“I remember pulling into a service station, searching for coins on the floor of the car, and buying $1.72 worth of petrol. It was all the money I had in the world.”
Nowadays the company is comfortably supporting 40 employees and is busy rising to the challenge of holding its own against cheap, imported products.
In Greg’s experience, the initial momentum garnered by cheaper, often inferior, products eventually wanes and reliable Australian made products win out in the end. But just to be sure, Screen Technics has increased its offering and managed to match the price point of its competitors’ imported products, while offering superior features at Australian manufacturing standards.
Buying Australian made products is something Greg feels passionate about. And when it has a tangible effect on the people he employs, and his suppliers, why wouldn’t he?
“There is a flow on effect for people buying Australian made. I’d be more worried about the ability for manufacturing to survive in Australia than any effect developments within industry would have on us.
“We compare ourselves to wheel nut manufacturers for the car industry. Without us, the end product doesn’t work. Projection screens, for a lot of AV fit-outs, are an essential but un-sexy part of the set-up. So our future is more driven by advancements in projectors and their relative cost to other technologies than the screens themselves.”
It’s refreshing to see an Australian company achieve commercial success, not because of complex marketing strategies, or cutting costs by moving manufacturing overseas, but by consistently delivering a quality product that’s made right here. And when you consider the company has the capacity for end-to-end in-house production and is now delivering Greg’s projected ideal monthly turnover on a weekly basis, it’s doing alright.
For Greg, the stand-out in all this is the fact the company’s got a good turnover and can provide stable employment for its workers.
“It’s a happy ship,” he says. “And in its time has never borrowed money for anything apart from bricks and mortar.”
Happy birthday Screen Technics. Here’s to the next 25 years.
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