Skilled workers needed as Rowlands Metalworks looks to continue growth

Sheet metal manufacturer Rowland Metalworks’ latest investment sets them on a firm path for Defence contracts for years to come.

Rowlands Metalworks managing director Anne le Clerq. Picture: Russell Millard

With a $500,000 investment in world-leading technology and an ongoing order to fit out the offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) being built at Osborne, Rowlands Metalworks has its sights firmly set on the future.

The light gauge sheet metal manufacturer, which has been in operation for more than 50 years, welcomed a new 3D welding robot, Arcemy, into its ranks in May. The half-a-million dollar technology provides Rowlands with the opportunity to expand its current capabilities and produce more sophisticated products for its clients, including those in the defence sector such as Spark Furniture, Enviro Australis, Seeley International and BAE Systems.

“Arcemy is a 3D additive manufacturing robot that can keep laying down beads of weld to build up a solid mass which is then sent out to be machined, so it is more cost-effective” says Anne le Clercq, general manager at Rowlands Metalworks. “You can also make hollow shapes. We’re still exploring the opportunities available, trying to map out its reaches and capacity, but I think the scope of it is going to be amazing. Cameron Johnston, our managing director, has often said this is going to be the first of many robots.”

Rowlands Metalworks managing director Anne le Clerq. Picture: Russell Millard

But while more robots are on the cards in the future, more people are what’s needed in the present. “We have 43 employees at the moment and we’re looking to hire another three or four people, but we’re finding there’s such a shortage of skilled people available,” le Clercq says. “We’re trying to think of ways to get more people involved: we’re talking to schools and technical colleges, and holding open nights for parents and children to come and see what we do, and to highlight the benefits of getting a trade.”

Those benefits include working with exciting technologies in a career that offers job security and longevity. “We’re doing work on the OPVs at the moment, doing ducting and kitchen galleys,” le Clercq says. “When we originally quoted for the project we thought it was just some stainless steel cabinetry going into a boat, but the actual standard of the products they’re looking for is what you would find in a first-class restaurant.

“We have contracts to do the first five or six ships, then we’ll have to requote but it looks like the client will stay with us, which is really good.”

The company’s apprenticeship program is helping to train its current workforce to take on those future contracts. “We have five apprentices at the moment and each year take on another one to keep the cycle going so we end up training our own workforce,” le Clerq says. “We’re also looking for engineering graduates for the office.

“The opportunities that are available with the frigates and OPVs and everything that’s happening at the shipyard are going to go on for years and years, so there will be jobs available.”