Established in 1999 by UK-born husband and wife team, Steve and Moira McCarthy, Perth-based Access Management has built a strong reputation as one of the largest specialist rope access companies in the Asia-Pacific Region.
Established in 1999 by UK-born husband and wife team, Steve and Moira McCarthy, Perth-based Access Management has built a strong reputation as one of the largest specialist rope access companies in the Asia-Pacific Region.
Providing inspection, repair and maintenance services to the oil and gas, mining and marine industries, the company now has more than 50 administrative and technical staff onsite and at its St Georges Terrace head office and Balcatta logistics facility.
With 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector, and a background in diving, Mr McCarthy developed the innovative tension netting systems, which is suited for work in difficult to reach or high-up locations.
Boasting major global companies such as Alcoa, Woodside, Conoco Phillips and Clough as clients, Mr McCarthy said rope access solutions complement the traditional scaffolding method by providing a quicker and cheaper alternative.
But the company’s swift growth had, in recent years, presented a number of challenges to the founders, who came under increase pressure as the workload grew.
The constraints came to a head in early 2006, which led Mr McCarthy to enrol in the Curtin University growth program.
“We’d hit a wall in how far we could grow the company,” he told WA Business News.
“We physically couldn’t do enough. We had to take a step back.”
Identifying issues related to scalability and business systems, Mr McCarthy brought a non-executive director on board with extensive international experience in the oil and gas industry 12 months ago.
A new chief executive was also appointed earlier this year to help improve overall business systems, and lead the company’s growth through the development of a business plan.
With expertise in strategic and corporate advisory, new CEO Gerard Moody implemented a more defined corporate structure, freeing up Mr McCarthy to focus more on marketing and sales and continuing to develop their products.
And with all of the company knowledge held in the founders’ heads, Mr Moody formulated a business plan identifying key clients, industries and locations, and set a timeline for future growth phases.
“We knew where we were going, just didn’t know how we were going to get there,” Mr McCarthy said.
“We knew we had to have a corporate structure, it just got lost because of the sheer volume of work.”
The company also appointed a marine inspection manager with global experience to growth the marine and shipping industry division of the business.
Further appointments, including an industrial manager, inspection manager to build up its inspection capacity, an operations manager and a project manager are expected to come online within the next 12 months.
The company is looking to expand its geographical reach, venturing into projects located in Darwin and Singapore, before targeting North and South America.
Mr Moody expects the business to double in size in one year in terms of sales and number of employees, and open an office in South-East Asia.
The company will also look to grow its onshore business, identifying market opportunities in the mining sector.
It is anticipated that the founders will step even further away from the business about three years down the track.
“The company’s got a lot more potential before that happens, and a lot more value to be created.”
