In February 2022, Lismore NSW experienced its worst floods on record, reaching 14.4m and causing widespread devastation.
Australian switchboard manufacturer and NESMA member, Marelex Electrical, was caught in the thick of it, with their facility going so far underwater, it reached the upper level offices.
Marelex services much of rural NSW and central Queensland, specialising in projects for councils, government, pump stations, and wastewater treatment plants. With much of the area they service being close to either rivers or the beach, Marelex manufactures aluminium switchboards to avoid any issues with rust.
Marelex did not let the Lismore floods sink the business, though. Theirs is a story of resilience – a manufacturer that has bounced back and returned to booming times, by using adversity to make changes that focus on the future.
Floods leave devastation
When the 2022 floods first hit, Marelex Managing Director Brad Harrang was at home – a few suburbs over from the factory – when the news broke, but it was already too late to do anything.
“By the time the warnings came in, the causeways were already flooded over. Hearing the reports of it being above 14m, I thought to myself, the factory must be underwater,” he said.
Brad’s home was cut off for a week by landslides in both directions, so even if he wanted to leave, he couldn’t.
“We were lucky that one of the residents had an excavator that they brought down to clear the landslides – who knows how long we would have been stranded without that.”
“I’m still luckier than some. Those that lived and worked in Lismore lost both their home and their business. I just lost a lot of the business, but I still had my home.”
Once he was able to travel back to the factory to survey the damage, Brad was greeted by quite a scene. His shipping container full of stock had floated away a bit and had become lodged over the front gate (as pictured below).
“Everything was waterlogged, muddy, and damaged. Just about everything had to be thrown out.”
For the larger machinery such as the folder, welders, and guillotine, Brad set about pulling it apart, hosing it out, replacing parts (such as relay controls or transformers), leaving it to dry, then putting it back together again.
“We also had to get the shipping container craned off the front fence, but once we cleared it out, it became an effective space to dry items, since it could get quite hot inside a shipping container in February.”
Starting to rebuild
Rebuilding after such chaos was a mammoth task.
“Everything was caked in mud. In the beginning, my wife and I were working 15 hours a day cleaning the factory, but I realised this just wasn’t sustainable. We’d burn out if we kept this up.”
“Something had to change. I had to treat it like a job and not a sprint. We had to work 8 hours like a workday and then go home.”
“I had to treat it like it was just another workplace, and not a business I owned and ran, or I would have become too emotionally invested, and it would have been too devastating.”
The shift in attitude made a difference. And within a few weeks, the highways were open again and workers could come back and help, too. This was followed by volunteers walking around and helping wherever they could. A couple of weeks later, the army joined the recovery efforts, and Brad set them to work clearing out the entire upstairs office.
“The community really pulled together. The council was focused on the Lismore CBD, so the industrial estate was left largely to manage its own recovery. My staff, friends, family, the volunteers, and the army did a phenomenal job, and I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
Back to switchboards
Once the office had been fully cleared, it was time to assess where the business sat. Prior to the floods, the factory had seven partially built and two complete switchboards on the floor.
“These all had to be stripped out, all switchgear thrown out, and the boards rebuilt. It was hard to accept, but our suppliers helped out enormously, offering us special rates on gear that we had to re-purchase due to the floods.”
“Another major help was the Business Council of NSW who set us up with a flood grant, which meant we could keep paying our staff while we got the business back up and running again.”
Within about six months, Marelex was back to where they were before the floods, and ready to take on new work again.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I’m the type of person that finds it hard to ask for help, but I really had to this time, or I just wouldn’t have coped.”
“Once we were finally back up and running, I needed a little break, so my wife and I went camping for a couple of days, somewhere high up and with no mud!”
Business picks up
While the business was ready to go again, there was still no power. Due to the extent of the water damage, the local authorities had the overhead powerlines disconnected, and each business had to have a qualified electrician come to certify that their premises were safe to connect to the grid.
“For a little while there, we missed out on a lot of work, while we were using petrol power, and waiting to be reconnected to the grid.”
“But after we connected ourselves back to the grid, we made a lot of main switchboards. With most buildings in the region being damaged in the floods, we had a lot of work coming in, probably two to three years of being absolutely flat out.”
“I went from having my worst year on record that year, to immediately having two of my best ever, so that can fix a lot of things.”
The new Marelex
Brad took the opportunity to invest in the business, while also making sure it was better prepared for future floods.
He bought all new office furniture with metal legs, not chipboard, so that it wouldn’t warp underwater. He installed shelving to keep stock upstairs, not on the ground floor. And he had a new logo designed, to reflect a new era in Marelex Electrical.
“About a year later, I hired a new engineer, and he came full of enthusiasm and fresh ideas. He encouraged me to put a new sign on the business, to look at certifications, and to join NESMA.”
Brad successfully achieved ISO 9001 certifications for Quality Management Systems, Environment, and Work Health and Safety, which he sees as a benefit to the entire company.
“Being part of NESMA helped me learn a lot. Their conferences are highly educational, and give good updates on Standards. But for me, the most valuable part of all is the one-on-one conversation you have with people in the same industry.”
“As we look to the future of the industry, with the grid decentralising, switchboards are going to be more important than ever. Battery, solar, wind… it all needs to connect, and that’s where we – and all of NESMA’s members – are well positioned to be essential suppliers.”
