Australian Pressure Testing Services founder Paul Newbound says building relationships with clients, diversifying the company’s services and investing in staff training are all factors that have helped the company to become a leader in its field.
The Henderson-based company has received many accolades over the past year, including a WA Business News Rising Stars award, and was named Telstra Australian Business of the Year late last month.
Mr Newbound launched APTS as a one-man consultancy in 2003 after he was made redundant from his previous employer.
“We only had $3000 in the bank, we remortgaged our house and got a $32,000 redraw facility and decided that we would start our own business,” Mr Newbound said.
Today, APTS, which provides pressure-testing services to the construction, resources and oil and gas industries, has become the largest pressure-testing company in Australia, employing almost 200 staff and turning over more than $40 million last financial year.
Mr Newbound said he was thrilled and humbled to receive the awards and attributed the company’s success to its staff and the quality of service it provided to clients.
“We didn’t do any advertising back in the early days and it was all word of mouth, so we had to ensure we built a good rapport with people,” he said.
In addition, he said recruiting the right people to fit the culture of the business was the most important factor in ensuring quality of service was never compromised.
“By producing our own pressure-testing technicians, we can find people with the right values and culture and train them to do the job, rather than take people on with great skills and try to mould them to fit into our culture,” Mr Newbound said.
The company has grown from a pipeline-testing company to one that provides a variety of pressure testing services to some of Western Australia’s major projects, including Woodside Petroleum’s Pluto LNG development and the Binningup desalination plant.
APTS has also invested in a state-of-the-art National Association of Testing Authorities’ accredited laboratory, which provides calibration and repairs for pressure and temperature instrumentation.
The company experienced its greatest growth in the boom years of 2004-08, during which turnover increased 500 per cent, but Mr Newbound said maintaining that momentum in the global financial crisis required a change of thinking.
“When the GFC hit, instead of looking at our typical markets, we looked outside the box and thought, what else is there that requires testing?” he said.
“So, we made a move into desalination, power generation and other niche markets and that really boosted the business.”
After working from Henderson for six years and attracting more than 30 per cent of its business from local companies, Mr Newbound said choosing a block nearby for its purpose-built $3 million premises was the obvious decision.
“We initially moved here by accident because we couldn’t find a workshop so, when we looked at buying a block for the new premises, we knew it had to be in Henderson,” he said. “We get an amazing amount of work in Henderson and, because we have a calibration laboratory as well, and all the ships have gauges that need calibrating.”
Mr Newbound said he hoped to double the size of the company by the end of the 2013 financial year and further expand the company’s footprint into the east coast market.
“While we have done work all around Australia, our main focus now is expanding into Queensland to service the coal seam gas industry and we have recently opened a base over there to do so,” he said.
