AUSTRALIA is more than just a blossoming market for British machinery manufacturing boss, Chris Kelland - he's decided to live here, too.
Mr Kelland, heads up two farm machinery companies building self propelled spray gear and specialist load carrying tractors which are enjoying rising export sales in Australia and New Zealand, plus promising prospects in Eastern Europe.
From his new Western Australian home base in Perth he runs his Kellands Agricultural equipment sales business in Gloucestershire, which also distributes Multidrive Tractor and Agribuggy self propelled sprayers made at factories nearby.
Both the Multidrive and Agribuggy names have been building momentum in NZ's higher rainfall cropping and pasture market for almost a decade, but Australian farmers and contractors are also showing keen interest following Multidrive's debut last year and recent sales of the Agribuggy in Tasmania.
A big dip in the British pound's value against the Australian dollar has also helped sales, shaving about 23 per cent from UK exports in the past two years.
"I'd be very surprised if we don't end up with four or five Multidrive sales following the strong inquiry we had at AgQuip (in NSW). We had a great show," Mr Kelland said.
"Even at Dowerin field days in WA we've had serious buying interest from South Australian and NSW visitors."
The former Ford tractor mechanic began building his machinery credentials after being made redundant from his original job and switching to selling farm equipment, particularly sprayers.
His company grew from nothing to become a major regional distributor, then 11 years ago bought Agribuggy which has made lightweight four wheel drive and steer spray rigs since the mid 1980s.
In 2006 he made another foray into manufacturing, buying Multidrive Tractors from a company which previously supplied the four and six wheel drive and steer machines to agricultural and the defence vehicle market.
Both factories now share the same design team and use outside suppliers to produce the components which are then assembled to fit with different customer requirements and delivered within four months.
After several trips to Australia to explore the market, Mr Kelland his wife, Heather, and three sons, decided they liked sunny Perth so much they would stay for good, subsequently establishing a local arm of their UK Cropsprayers business two years ago.
Multidrive's truck-tractor style machines are breaking into the fertiliser spreader and load haulage market in the footsteps of another successful UK specialist tractor maker, JCB.
"But the latest JCBs are much heavier and bigger than they used to be and with quite a few machines sold in Australia and NZ in the past 15 years now coming to the end of their lives, the owners are worried about weight and ground compaction issues," Mr Kelland said.
"I expect Australia and NZ will take about half our Multidrive production next year (currently about 50 units annually), although we also have good prospects for our new 9000-litre capacity six wheel spray units in Eastern Europe which will require us to step up our production if exports take off."
Weighing 10 or 15 tonnes fully loaded, they can currently carry a 5000-litre sprayer with 36-metre boom, or a seven cubic metre (eight tonne) fertiliser spreader, which in Australia is the Victorian-built Transpreader.
Spray gear made by UK firm, Chafer, also imported by Mr Kelland's company, can be mounted on the Multidrive to retail at a total cost of about $350,000.
The basic tractor sells for $250,000 (GST inclusive).
Multidrive tractors are powered by 150 or 200 kilowatt John Deere engines with six or eight speed automatic transmission and have a 50 kilometre and hour road speed.
The lightweight hydrostatic Agribuggy sprayer, which has a strong market niche in the the UK liquid fertiliser market, is powered by a 97kW Volkswagon-built TDI engine and carries a boom up to 32 metres wide.
It sells for about $240,000 in Australia.
Mr Kelland has considered establishing a partial assembly plant in Australia, but currently imports his machinery ready-built because the mining boom makes engineering skills so expensive.
While migrating to WA to develop his markets "down under" had taken him well away from his UK factories, he said "profits are have actually been higher without me hanging around".
"Our workforce isn't big - we're typical of many businesses in agricultural sector in Britain - but I've always been keen to let other people take some responsibility and develop their own ideas, and it's paying off."
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