Stärke AMG acquires Precise Machining and Manufacturing

Advanced manufacturer Stärke AMG has made a familial acquisition as it positions itself for major defence contracts.

Stärke Advanced Manufacturing Group’s Grant Tinney is making a push for more work in the defence industry. Picture: Dean Martin

Two advanced manufacturing companies have been reunited under a single family ownership group.

Gillman-based Stärke Advanced Manufacturing Group (Stärke AMG), led by chief executive Grant Tinney, has acquired his brother Terry’s tooling business Precise Machining and Manufacturing based out of Edwardstown.

The brothers split the family’s advanced manufacturing interests in 2008 as they transitioned from a mainly automotive focus to new opportunities in defence, aerospace and mining.

Grant said the acquisition of Precise, which manufactures and repairs components and tooling products from a range of materials, expanded the group’s capability in high-end machining for the defence industry.

“To acquire that business was important for our ongoing growth because we are getting increasingly involved in composites here in Australia - manufacturing tooling for defence, aerospace and space,” he said.

Stärke AMG chief executive Grant Tinney, right, with CNC programmer Doug Foster at the company's Gillman facility. Picture: Dean Martin

“That business has some really developed strengths in the composites market but is also very strong in injection tooling, and a lot of our clients in Australia are wanting to have tooling now built in Australia rather than built offshore.”

Precise was established by Grant and Terry’s father Manfred, a German immigrant, in 1971. It initially made car components for the local automotive manufacturing industry before switching its focus to the mining, medical and defence sectors.

It is now one of six businesses in the Stärke AMG group, whose advanced manufacturing work includes high-end fabrication and engineering, precision machining, component manufacturing and product design and development.

The businesses operate from four facilities across Adelaide, at Port Adelaide, Pooraka, Edwardstown and Gillman, while tooling products are also manufactured for the US market out of a new facility in Troy, Michigan.

There are 110 employees across the six businesses, and the group is approaching $30m in annual revenue.

To position itself for major defence contracts, Stärke AMG has invested more than $4m in major equipment over the past three years, and it plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years.

Just this month it took delivery of a fleet of four 3D metal printers valued at more than $1m.

“These machines came out of a Rolls Royce facility in the UK and were used for building engine parts for fighter aircraft,” Grant said.

“It is very important to be able to develop the capability and the capacity here in South Australia to support the defence work that’s going on - that means major capital investment in capital equipment, technology and software, as well as training of staff to be able to meet the needs of the future for defence.

“These investments are not investments for the next two to three years - they’re investments that will drive our companies for the next 30 to 40 years.”