12.02.26 •
Learn how SEW-EURODRIVE Australia is bringing service to the forefront in 2026
To Rob Merola, effectively providing a service to a customer boil down to two, maybe three things.The Managing Director of SEW-Eurodrive Australia believes you first need to invest in space and people. “And then the third string, which is most important in Australia is you need stock or inventory, given the tyranny of distance,” he elaborated.Service has been an increasingly important factor at the local subsidiary of German-based SEW Eurodrive since the COVID-19 era kicked off a wave of growth that continued through 2025.“Fortunately, the company's never been averse to buying or building or expanding. We've always been, I think, oversized and over-resourced. But given we can afford to do that, it's really allowed us to grow into our skin seamlessly and painlessly, Merola said.“Therefore, not having to scramble for space, or to find people and train them. So, we've always been a little ahead of the game when it comes to space and resources. This allows the team to just grow seamlessly in all areas, be it production/shop floor, engineering team (electronics/ mechatronics), our mechanical engineers in the IG field, and finally the logistics team.”
Preparing to open a tenth Australian site
Merola joined SEW-Eurodrive Australia soon after it was established in 1982, as Sales Office Supervisor and employee number one in the office. From approximately $6 million in revenues in year two, SEW now turns over approximately $150 million, with about $50 million of stock on hand across its seven Australian sites. A tenth was purchased in late 2025 at 17 Wicks Street in Perth’s Bayswater, which will replace and triple the floor space in its current Welshpool site. Other recent additions across the country include the building of a 3,500 square metre facility in Newcastle. “We've leased two small factories in Melbourne, which is very unusual because we don't lease anything, we tend to own everything,” Merola added.“We just didn't have the space to put service in our existing facilities, and I didn't want to mix dirty with clean, so to speak. We just finished refurbishing a large place in Wingfield, Adelaide as well, which opened just over a year ago. “Having just settled on Bayswater in Perth, we're about to engage in the fit out and continue to build on our team over there and improve our great service to the WA market. “We've really spent a lot of money in the last ten years in renovations, in building new facilities, expanding existing facilities et cetera. So it's been a very, very busy time, but it's been fruitful.”Growth at the Tullamarine, Melbourne national headquarters has meant occupying 27, then 29, 31, 33 and most recently 35 Beverage Drive.Number 35 was occupied by neighbour Dorax Engineering, a longstanding supplier to SEW and a supplier of specialised machining parts and components. SEW recently acquired Dorax after its owners opted for retirement.The risk of disruption saw SEW make an offer and subsequently open a new Precision Machining Division.“So, we’ve became the masters of our own destiny. We bring as much of the external special machining requirements as possible in-house,” said Merola. “We obviously can't cover everything, but a fair portion of it we can, therefore we decided to buy the business, and about 20 different machines, a couple of CNC lathes, et cetera.”
Selling the benefits of being a premium supplier
Another contributor to recent growth has been a move into drop-in solutions, especially for aging and worn worm gear drives. Newer and much more efficient bevel-helical drives custom-built to snugly occupy an old drive’s space is another part of the service offerings. This began with fabricating simple sandwich plates enabling companies to avoid jackhammering and disrupting a facility’s foundations when installing the new efficient drives.“Based on the efficiency and the savings on power alone, this has made a lot of sense to some of our customers, particularly in the grain industry along the coast of South Australia, where there were a lot of old worm boxes which were terribly inefficient,” added Merola.At the start of 2026, Merola sees a lot of price sensitivity from customers – particularly larger companies – around power. Higher IE ratings are becoming more desirable. “Great headway” has been made with airport operators, with new decentralised installations replacing aged old ones “due to not only efficiency gains, but also due to what we call drive radar technology. Here we can monitor the health and performance of a unit remotely and tell not only if there's going to be an issue with the drive itself, but somewhere in their overall drive chain” said Merola. “We can monitor a number of key aspects like sensing vibrations, overheating etc. and we've managed to short-circuit potentially other mechanical issues purely by monitoring the drives remotely.” The Managing Director expects 2026 to be a year of consolidation for SEW, due to the cost-sensitive mood.Supply chains have been mended since early this decade, SEW’s competitors have geared back up, and the market has become extremely competitive.“We've had to battle the price tag, and I feel that that is going to be the theme for this year to try and consolidate our position in the market,” he said, citing reliability advantages offered through quality products and the company’s Australian network. “So, we need to sell the benefits as to why we are a premium supplier, if downtime is important to the end user, well, that $50 that you're going to save on a unit is a great insurance policy! Especially if you're going to be down at 2.30 am in the morning, costing you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars an hour.” That willingness to invest in space, people and stock will continue to matter. “SEW” is just a different beast. It's still a family-owned company. We're 95 years old this year. In 2031, we'll be 100,” concluded Merola.“There's no other company like it in the world. The difference is that we're not short-sighted. “We invest for the future, and I think our staff turnover record alone is testament to what a great company it is. I think it might be that 50 per cent of our employees have been with us for 10 years plus.“It's an amazing record, and our retention rate is probably unparalleled not only in our industry but probably in many, many industries.”
marketing@sew-eurodrive.com.au