Page 32 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2019

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COVER STORY
SMC CORPORATION www.packagingnews.com.au
Sixty years of success and counting
SMC Corporation has a rich heritage and an enviable track record, growing from humble beginnings in Tokyo to a global powerhouse in automation and pneumatics. Lindy Hughson visited the Australian headquarters and found out from ANZ MD Wayne Driver what makes the company tick.
1980s the business required bigger premises, which prompted the ac- quisition of a property in Castle Hill. This remains the site of the Austra- lian HQ today – although it has ex- panded since initial set-up, and now occupies 80,0000 square metres of land housing the manufacturing, warehousing, engineering, sales, safety and quality divisions, and the administrative head office.
Driver has been involved with the business for close on 30 years, earn- ing his stripes through various roles, including a traineeship in Japan, a seven-year stint as MD of New Zea- land and then, ultimately, as MD heading up both the Australian and New Zealand operations.
September-October 2019
N April 1959, a metallurgist named Yoshiyuki Takada took a leap of faith and started a small company in his in his house in Ichikawa, Chiba Pre- fecture Tokyo, manufacturing sin- tered metal elements for air filters. Its name – Sintered Metal Company – was abbreviated to SMC, a brand that is today synonymous with market leadership in engineering and pneu- matic control equipment, industrial automation, as well as its origin of sintered filters and filtration equip- ment. On the day I’m interviewing Wayne Driver, who heads up the Australasian arm of SMC, he tells me it’s Mr Takada’s 93rd birthday.
“Despite his advanced years, Mr Takada remains active in the com- pany as chairman, continuing to impart his invaluable experience and wisdom to the global leadership team,” Driver says.
Driver’s deep respect for the com- pany’s founder is evident as he re- lates the story of the company's humble beginnings, engineering
and production evolution, and ex- pansion over the past six decades, both globally and in Australia.
His own connection to the compa- ny started fourteen years after SMC was established, through his father, Peter Driver. In 1973, Peter – who had been working at SMC’s local agent called Airmate – was tasked with es- tablishing the company’s first over- seas operation in Australia. Under direction from Mr Takada to com- bine the “best of Japan and the best of Australia”, he set up a new entity SMC Pneumatics (Australia), which would become incorporated into a wholly owned subsidiary in 1980. Peter subsequently established a se- ries of other SMC subsidiaries across NZ and SE Asia. He went on to rise up the leadership ranks, eventually appointed to the board in Japan – the first foreign director, responsible for the Oceania zone.
Meanwhile, the Australian busi- ness had set up a manufacturing op- eration in Rydalmere, but by the