THIS MONTH WE TALK TERRAIN TAMER
Describe the Australian 4WD industry
That’s an interesting question. Probably in a word, I’d say thriving. The automotive car manufacturing industry hasn’t been able to survive in Australia, with factories closing down, but the 4WD Aftermarket industry, has thrived. I think for a long time, we were underestimated by the wider automotive community for innovation, but we’ve come into our own and shown the world what is possible. When you attend international shows in places like Europe or Africa, you can look around and see another 6 or so Australian brands setting up, and something we should be very proud of. Much like the surfing community, the Australian 4WD industry lead in many areas.
What makes Australian 4WD industry so successful overseas
A lot of it really comes back to the environment that we operate within. In Australia we have not only some of the harshest conditions in the world, but I believe Toyota achieve something like 16 of the required 18 testing environments for new vehicles, here. I think too, that because of how isolated Australia has traditionally been, and still is now, from the rest of the world, companies have had to think for themselves and be more creative when solving problems, which offers a uniqueness to our innovation.
How many overseas locations does Terrain Tamer have?
We now have 7 (soon to be 8) locations outside of Australia, the most recent of which is in Cape Town, and was opened in 2021, during the pandemic. Each of our overseas locations serve as launching pads for the wider regions, which includes a network of over 50 stockists throughout Africa, Central Asia, South America and Europe. There are very few regions that we don’t have a presence now.
What do you consider to be Australian made (engineering, raw material etc)?
This is a great question because we have to play to our strengths. When innovation is developed in Australia, but possibly manufactured overseas, we’re still driving Australian jobs, brands, businesses and the economy. For example, in many cases, our products are designed in Australia, by our development team, so even though formation of the product didn’t happen in Australia, we’d definitely consider it Australian. It is has become harder to manufacture from end to end in Australia as many of these companies have simply closed. I’ve also seen iron ore shipped to our manufacturing plant in Japan and turned into steel. That steel has then become Terrain Tamer bearings, and then re-exported to us in Australia before going all around the world. The end product might have been manufactured in Japan, but it’s an Australian product.
What is your most successful Australian made product?
Springs have definitely evolved incredibly over a long period of time and now lead the international market. But we also have some niche products like our air filter insert, that was released last year. It’s never going to sell in the same volume but it leads the category in innovation and until we released it, nothing like that had been seen before in the international community. Seats and seatbelts are popular. Exhaust Systems are growing in relevance also.
What is next for an Australian company like yours exporting to the world?
As we roll out consistently new innovation each year, it becomes about the brand and protecting the brand. Customers are expecting the Terrain Tamer brand to be innovating all the time, because that’s what they’re used to, so we have developed processes & systems to have in place to keep those expectations going, and to make sure our brand is embedded in consumers priorities when searching for 4WD solutions.