CBG Systems to attend Defence and Security Equipment International convention in London

With hundreds of Tasmanian jobs expected to be created in defence supply industries, a trade mission this week is attending a strategic international trade exhibition hoping to lure even more work to the state.

Liferaft Systems Australia Managing Director Mike Grainger with a 100 person self righting inflatable liferaft at Derwent Park. Picture: Chris Kidd

With hundreds of Tasmanian jobs expected to be created in defence supply industries, a trade mission this week is attending a strategic international trade exhibition hoping to lure even more work to the state.

Tasmania’s Defence Advocate Rear Admiral Steve Gilmore and Coordinator General John Perry are leading the mission to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) convention in London which features more than 2800 suppliers and buyers from around the world.

Javier Herbon, the managing director of CBG Systems at Derwent Park, which provides marine insulation and fire protection systems, said face-to-face meetings were “paramount in the defence sectors”.

He said the company signed its first defence contract with the US Department of Defence in 2008 and he expects the workforce to grow four fold to 200 in the next few years.

“Since then we have had ongoing business with the US defence every year and we have also grown into the defence market by securing contacts for the Australian defence forces, and other friendly nations to Australia,” Mr Herbon said.

Liferaft Systems Australia Managing Director Mike Grainger with a 100 person self righting inflatable liferaft at Derwent Park. Picture: Chris Kidd

“Currently 50 per cent of our business comes from the application of our capability into the defence market and we think this is on a growing trajectory.

“It is important to say that we do not define ourselves as a defence business, we are simply an advanced manufacturing business with key advance niche capabilities with dual application, defence and commercial.”

Mr Herbon said meeting customers and partners from the US, Canada, Japan, Taiwan was vital and DSEI was “a strategic meeting point”.

“Projects go for decades, from inception, delivery and commissioning and developing trust is critical. DSEI provides us the opportunity to concentrate highly valuable interaction within a very intense four days.

“We currently have 50 employees and with the work we have on foot for the next five years we have an employment growth trajectory where we estimate we will have 200 employees in the next three to four years.”

Life rafts Australia managing director Michael Grainger commended the government for supporting the mission “because they are hugely successful, sometimes not immediately, but down the track”.

“I think it’s paramount, that Tasmania continues to fly the flag at these international events, because otherwise we get forgotten, it’s pretty easy to be forgotten down under,” he said.

Shankhar Rasiah, managing director of AERIUS Marine Australia which set up a Tasmanian arm last year, says he has an RAN contract to design heating ventilation and airconditioning systems for a Naval ship.

Liferaft Systems Australia. A 100 person self righting inflatable liferaft at Derwent Park. Picture: Chris Kidd

He says his team is expected to “grow significantly over the next years as the project moves into to construction phase”.

“The DSEI expo is quite important as it gives us the opportunity to meet our key prime defence contractors with whom AERIUS Marine has held contracts for major surface combatant over the past years,” Mr Rasiah said.

Advanced Manufacturing and Defence Industries Minister Madeleine Ogilvie said developing relationships directly with overseas enterprises “gives Tasmania a strategic commercial advantage”.

“The successes we are seeing in defence industries are important to both industry and the future economic growth of Tasmania,” she said.

“Tasmanian industry is going from strength to strength, and the wins of our companies on the international stage speak to the commercial focus of our government.

“We are doing what matters by investing in the right support at the right time for business, and helping industry capitalise on its strengths and succeed.”

Originally published as CBG Systems to attend Defence and Security Equipment International convention in London