Local car manufacturing closure known in early 2000s

The potential shutdown of Australia’s vehicle manufacturing was made aware to a select individuals within the industry as early as the year 2000.

Heavy diesel engine re-manufacturing business HM Gem tells AutoTalk the potential pulling out of manufacturing by Holden, Ford and Toyota was signalled to the business in the early 2000s when the Dandenong operation was primarily in the automotive space.

Managing director Bruce Parker’s business was one of the main engine warranty partners for General Motors Holden during the period when the brand’s market share and sales were the highest in Australia’s history.

Parker says Holden made him acutely aware his engine reconditioning business was due for disruption even at a time when Holden held 18% market share and was selling circa-100,000 vehicles a year and the VX Commodore was one of the most popular vehicles in Australia.

“We knew Holden and Ford were exiting manufacturing even back then,” he reveals to AutoTalk.

“We were told our warranty work would end, it was just a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’,” Parker explains.

HM Gem Engines was one of the top engine re-conditioners in the country before the news came through the industry, so Parker quickly prepared to re-position before the upheaval.

“I knew we had to be prepared,s o we re-equipped for heavy diesel, we already had market presence in speciality machining and there weren’t many others doing it at the time,” he says.

“We bought up Repco’s machining services, their equipment, and began machining components for a range of OEMs and their dealer networks,” Parker adds.

HM Gem engines is now an industry partner for re-manufacturing heavy diesel engines for the transport sector, working with Cummins, Caterpillar, Detroit Diesel, Scania, Volvo, Mack, MAN, IVECO, Isuzu and Hino, as well as the preferred partner for mining, public transport companies, marine and military operations.