Gerry Branigan is the CEO of Central Diesel, a South Australian company manufacturing and supplying a wide range of engines, generators, pumps and services to Australia’s oil, gas and mining industries. It has become one of the most trusted designers and installers of integrated industrial power units in the country.

Tell us about your career and how it led to becoming CEO at Central Diesel?
I have been privileged to work for and be part of the international development of some exceptional Australian companies including Minelab Electronics, Extraordinary Technology, and Australian Trade International. My career has taken me to work in Europe the US and of course Australia. My original training was in electrical/electronic engineering but I moved to management by my mid-twenties with the opportunity of new challenges.

My career has been pretty diverse from managing high and low volume manufacturing, to establishing manufacturing and new distribution and marketing channels in Europe, the US and Asia. I was approached about the opportunity at Central Diesel while sailing in the Whitsundays by a previous business partner, who had been researching the company for some time. After a review of the business and its potential it was a pretty easy decision to come on board in September 2010.

What does your role involve?
Central Diesel has grown from a team of two people servicing engines in 1985 to today, a company employing 75 people with an annualised turnover of approximately $20 million. The business is very dynamic. So it is my role to guide Central Diesel through its next phase of growth.

We are expanding our management and business structure, investing in new capital development and expanding our operations across Australia in order to meet the burgeoning needs of our customers and to sustain our growth potential. A key part of this role was securing capital investment into the business. Central Diesel was extensively damaged in January 2011 as a result of a fire that started at an adjoining property.

How did this affect your operations and how long did it take to recover?
We were lucky in some respects. The fire caused extensive damage and forced Central Diesel to relocate all of its operations while at the same time ensure that we were doing all possible to meet the demands of our loyal customers. Our staff were fantastic. Fortunately there were no injuries thanks to our well organised Fire Warden team.

As the fire erupted our staff pulled together quickly and our evacuation was a very orderly process. The fire devastated our business. But thanks to our staff and a very supportive insurer in Zurich we were able to put plans in place over ensuing days to resurrect the business. We quickly put in place temporary huts and equipment; moved manufacturing to new temporary premises and over the ensuing months did all we could to get back to normal operations.

By May we were able to complete the move of all of our teams to new premises at Wingfield and begin the next chapter in Central Diesels’ development. I’d say the fire put our business plan back about four or five months. It probably forced us to make some hard decisions about our business earlier than we may have wanted to, but we are determined that the fresh start will benefit our business in the longer term.

The new premises have given us the opportunity to restructure our factory and service operations, leading to improved work flow and operating efficiencies. Our staff and customers have a much improved work environment. The changes have forced us to review our past business practices and allowed us to make our business stronger than before the fire.

What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?
Without doubt the people I work with, they are passionate and very talented. We are fortunate to have a team of people that are highly skilled and love what they do. We are strong in our technical capacity and quite entrepreneurial, so this helps us retain existing clients and develop new opportunities.

What are some of the challenges currently facing Central Diesel?
As a growth-orientated company with high aspirations, we compete in a business environment of much larger multinational companies from the USA and Europe amongst others. Size means a lot when you are dealing with very large customers. The real challenge for Central Diesel is in proving our products are strong enough, reliable enough and that Australian really can be better.

To this end we constantly work on improving our products, testing ourselves against the major overseas operators and ensuring we have unsurpassed technical capabilities that meet the needs required of Australia’s harshest remote environments. We are also working to lift our company profile across Australia and internationally to enable us to continue to attract new clients.

However, in our market word-of-mouth is a big seller for us, so we ensure our current clients continue to get the service and equipment that they need to make their businesses more efficient and more profitable.

What major changes and new trends have you noticed in your industry?
Exploration and mining will continue to grow across Australia at a rapid rate over the next five years, so there will be a lot of opportunities for growth. Many of the major new developments in mining and coal seam gas will provide contracts that are too big for just one company to meet the needs. There will be opportunities for new partnerships.

Opportunities as a 2nd or 3rd tier supplier of equipment to other larger companies will become more common than is currently the case in the Australian business environment. So I see there will be a trend toward more open relationships and partnerships between businesses in order to get major projects implemented and maintained.

What do you see as being potential growth areas for Central Diesel?
Central Diesel is one of the few Australian manufacturers of infrastructure solutions to Australia’s oil, gas and mining sectors. Far more than manufacture and install we have become one of Australia’s most respected designers and installers of power generators and equipment.

Uniquely for a designer and manufacturer Central Diesel also provides highly skilled technical staff around the clock across Australia to service and maintain critical plant and equipment to keep customer operations running. This combination gives us two avenues for growth with any expansion in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

We are also looking to export some of our innovative and highly durable mining services equipment such as high reliability generator sets and oil pumping equipment to places like the United States, Middle East and the African continent, where there is extensive drilling and mining activity. Being able to demonstrate success and reliability in Australia’s tough environmental operating conditions puts us in good stead in the global market.

What have been the highlights of your career to date?
At Central Diesel, it has been the recent positive changes and the undoubted potential for growth. The potential of this organisation for expansion is huge, and it is an exciting time to be involved. I have been fortunate to have many highlights in my career so far.

The opportunity to develop new greenfield projects in Australia, Europe and the US from ideas to vibrant growing businesses, each providing many challenges but on the whole immensely rewarding. Years later seeing these different businesses continue to grow and develop is still a buzz.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
My passions are my family, sailing, and attempting to improve my golf game. I try and spend as much time as I can on all of these. But family is my real joy.