ActronAir Successfully Serves One of the Harshest Climates on Earth
ActronAir was established by Garry Mundy and his two sons, Robert and Kevin, in 1984. They started the company because they believed in ideas, not status quo, leading to innovation at every stage of the company’s history. Today, “ActronAir is a proud Australian owned family business celebrating its 30th year, with a reputation for designing, manufacturing and distributing some of the most energy efficient air conditioning units on the market,” says General Manager Graham Brown.
From advanced air-flow technology, energy smart zoning, sound reduction and temperature control through to the unique louvre grille of their outdoor units, the Company’s innovation-rich offerings and operations continue to drive sales and growth. “Innovation and Customer Service are key elements of our competitive advantage. We continually innovate to create clever solutions specifically designed to meet the harsh Australian climate so that people can live and work in absolute comfort,” says Graham.
Fully Integrated Design, Development and Manufacturing
Regarded as the quiet achiever in the Australian air conditioning industry, ActronAir has evolved into a fully integrated design, development and manufacturing business. The company’s head office and world-class manufacturing plant covers more than two hectares and includes a state-of-the-art Psychrometric Calorimeter testing room.
As part of these fully integrated operations, Graham outlines the top factors contributing to the Company’s steady growth: “First, we provide a quality product designed to meet Australian conditions. We also apply a continual focus on innovation across all parts of the business, especially in product design.”
“In addition, we work with key supply chain partners who share the same philosophy of innovation, quality and customer focus. Strategic business relationships play a major role at ActronAir. We work hand in hand to bring innovative ideas to life. Our partner relationships allow us to challenge each other, share ideas, and bring products to market far sooner than the standard industry time frames for producing a commercialised solution,” says Graham.
Challenges and Solutions
While continued growth is generally a positive, ActronAir carefully monitors their growth to ensure the Company maintains their core beliefs while growing in multiple segments of their industry. In addition, while new ideas are also generally a positive, actually bringing to market all the ideas ActronAir has for innovative product represents a challenge for the Company’s R&D resources. ActronAir’s R&D department continues to do exceptionally well with this challenge of keeping up with a large volume of good ideas, but it is something that requires special attention nonetheless.
Graham also added that “The high Australian dollar to the US dollar has been a challenge over recent times. However we continue to thrive and grow despite this.”
“Our Business Excellence programme has been a great contributor to us being able to engage the entire workforce in finding new ways of doing things to accommodate the growth we have had over the past few years. Improving processes in all areas of the business has certainly helped the Company to do things better and faster to meet the growing customer needs,” explains Graham.
New Product Lines
Over just this last year alone, ActronAir has launched three new product lines:
Hercules is the most advanced range of variable capacity reverse cycle packaged units ever engineered in Australia. With a capacity range of 140kw, 170kw and 195kw, the units are the size of a 20ft shipping container. “We are extremely proud of the performance that Hercules delivers, in particular the energy savings it can provide, and this something that the industry has acknlowedged - it recently won the ARBS industry award for Product of the Year, and was a finalist at both the AIRAH and Endeavour awards,” says Graham.
The ESP Platinum (Energy Smart Performance) series is a range of variable speed split ducted air conditioners that are up to 75 percent more efficient than conventional fixed speed technology, and up to 50 percent more efficient than conventional inverter technology. “Our ESP line has been at the forefront of energy efficient products for many years. This range was recently extended with the release of the Platinum range of split ducted units. Being able to run a ducted unit on just one zone without a “common zone” is a feature that many other brands cannot do,” says Graham. “This feature of variable air flow combined with variable refrigerant flow is a real energy saver for the consumer. We take this one step further with our ESP Ultima product, which gives you the ability to control different temperatures in different zones all at the one time, giving you the ultimate comfort solution.”
ActronConnect is the Company’s wireless control system that allows their customers to control their ducted air conditioner from anywhere that has internet connectivity. This product was developed in-house and will work with any smart phone, tablet and computer through the ultra convenient ActronConnect App.
Market-leading Innovators
The working knowledge vested in the company's principals, combined with 30 years of research and development, has resulted in some of the quietest, most energy efficient air conditioning systems in the world.
As long-standing market leaders, ActronAir has adopted additional responsibilities. “As what we see as part of our industry obligation, we spend a lot of time educating our dealers and other parts of the industry in a broad range of topics each year. Last year we held training sessions for more than 400 trade-based customers, and we also contributed product to the TAFE network to help with the apprentice training scheme. [NSW Technical and Further Education Commission, known as TAFE NSW, is Australia's leading vocational education and training provider.] We also sponsor many industry events and have numerous employees who are active members within industry associations,” says Graham.
“What has excited me the most is seeing the company grow and increase our brand penetration across multiple segments of the HVAC industry. Seeing innovative products being released to market and then having this recognized through industry awards is very gratifying. I am also happy to have been able to see numerous employees promoted to more senior roles to become part of the future of the business.”
Whether it's product, improving operational efficiency, or delivering the best service support in the industry, ActronAir continues its strong role as market-leading innovators.
