The Andrews Labor Government is backing a local award-winning tapware manufacturer, so they can create jobs and boost productivity.
Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll today visited Somerton-based Sussex Taps to announce a $600,000 Local Industry Fund for Transition grant – which will go towards the company’s $4 million expansion.
The upgrade will allow Sussex to create a world-leading manufacturing facility to develop new products with improved function, form and appearance and entre new export markets – creating 20 new jobs.
Headed by 2018 Young Manufacturer of the Year Vanessa Katsanevakis and her husband George, Sussex Taps makes high quality bathroom products that can be customised with different colours, reflective finishes, brushed finishes and even diamonds.
Sussex Taps is the only Australian tap manufacturer that controls the process from start to finish – from melting down brass rods in its in-house foundry, to pouring the metal into the machinery, polishing, coating and then assembling and dispatching.
The company supplies more than 500,000 products through a wide range of retailers across Australia and has had its products featured in every season of the TV show, The Block.
The company is currently featuring in the Labor Government’s Made in Victoria campaign to showcase local manufacturing innovation, expertise and capability.
Victoria’s manufacturing industry contributes $27.7 billion to the Victorian economy, with over 13,000 businesses employing more than 283,000 people. It also exported $18.16 billion of manufactured goods in 2016-17.
Victorian manufacturing is thriving, recording 17 months of consecutive growth in the Australian Industry Group’s Performance Manufacturing Index – the longest run of expansion since 2001.
The growth in manufacturing is backed by the Labor Government’s $130 million in manufacturing support, which is creating over 6,000 jobs and driving $1.6 billion in private investment.
