Remould makes new idea stick
APP International owner Jimmy Estwick has completely remoulded his business after a big shift in the automotive accessories market and now has a new focus on “sticky” products.
Mr Estwick, who emigrated from the UK to Australia in 2010, founded App International after spotting a gap in the Australian market for a supplier of windscreen mouldings.
He had spent eight years in the UK helping his father, Peter Estwick, develop a similar business.
Mr Estwick said there was only one company in Australia, Oz Auto Moulds, that supplied windscreen mouldings, when he arrived in Australia.
“They had zero competitors so it was a good opportunity for someone new to come into the market and offer some competition,” he said.
He established the business in 2012 from a 400sq m facility in Yatala and was soon supplying major windscreen repair and replacement company O’Brien Glass via his father’s UK firm.
Mr Estwick said at that time O’Brien’s wanted a specific mould for each vehicle, which led to booming business.
The company had 300 different mouldings piled high in its warehouse. However, that all changed four years ago when O’Brien’s switched to universal moulds, which were much cheaper. Another customer went bust and Mr Estwick’s lease was due to run out.
He took a gamble and moved to Burleigh Heads to a smaller facility and started thinking about supplying other products to the sector.
“That was one of the reasons we moved away from mouldings because we lost a lot of business through O’Brien’s changing to universal moulds,” he said.
Mr Estwick said he looked at the market for adhesives for windscreens, which was then dominated by multinational corporations such as Sika and Bostik. The adhesives for windscreens are used to attach the windscreen to the body of the car and come in either polymer (which is dominant in Australia) and polyurethane.
He said he decided to source his own products.
“Every single piece of glass, whether it is a front windscreen, on a side window on a truck, bus or piece of plant machinery, has to have this adhesive used,” he said.
“So the volume is massive. But it is dominated by those two multinational companies.”
Mr Estwick said he connected with a business associate in China who had recently moved to industry giant Huitian, which supplies manufacturers Nissan and Qutong bus company, the world’s largest bus manufacturer.
He visited his associate, inspected the factory in China, and decided to start importing and supplying the product to the Australian market.
Mr Estwick said he first had to adapt the polyurethane adhesive to suit Australian conditions.
“We had to change the viscosity of the product. We had to mess around with the formula because in places where you get high humidity it can effect how fast the product sets.”
He said it then needed to be “crash tested” before the product could be sold.
“The initial crash test was performed in the UK in 2017,” he said.
“You have new glass fitted to the vehicle with your product and the crash test dummies inside. They drive it into a wall and measure whether the glass is retained in the vehicle.”
Mr Estwick said after the product was approved for sale in Australia, sales soared to the point where the adhesives side
turned into 80 per cent of his business within 18 months with the remainder made up of the windscreen mouldings.
He will soon roll out adhesive products for the windscreen market under his own Appollo brand, which will include a polymer adhesive for the first time. “For us to continue to grow we need to get into that market,” he said.
“We will be the only Australian manufacturer that offers both products (polymer and polyurethane) for the windscreen market.”
Mr Estwick said he will also launch adhesive products for the construction market, which has massive potential to expand his business.
“Windscreens are a very niche market. The construction industry is much bigger. If you want to build an airport or casino they use adhesives in every aspect of construction.”
He said the brand name change will be complete by September. “Adhesives have completely changed my business. I did not know anything when I started. Our sales have drastically increased since we got into that sector.”