Marand Precision Engineering

Marand has been a Melbourne engineering business since 1969 and sits oddly in the Australian defence sector, because a large share of its work has nothing to do with defence at all. The head office and main plant are at Moorabbin, with a second manufacturing site at Geelong and further presence in South Australia, Western Australia, Fort Worth and London. Around 150 people work there. Fort Worth exists because Lockheed Martin does. The company belongs to ASDAM, the sovereign manufacturing group majority owned by funds managed by CPE Capital that also holds Quickstep, TAE Aerospace, Rosebank Engineering, Levett Engineering and Oldham Engineering.

Aerospace is the best known segment. Marand builds vertical tails for the conventional take-off variant of the F-35A Lightning II under a long-term agreement signed with BAE Systems in 2011, and Australian-made tails now fly on the aircraft of several partner nations, with the production run stretching towards several hundred sets. It is also the global original equipment manufacturer of the F-35 engine removal and installation mobility trailer, the ground equipment used every time a Pratt and Whitney F135 comes out of an airframe anywhere in the world. Aerospace ground support equipment more broadly is a product line in its own right, and aviation customers buy handling and storage equipment from the same shop.

Defence work beyond the F-35 has grown quickly. Kongsberg Defence Australia contracted Marand to produce launch ramp systems for the Naval Strike Missile, then extended that to structural launcher frames and rails for the missile canisters delivered under Project SEA 1300, made at Geelong. In May 2023 Rheinmetall extended its manufacturing partnership by about A$50 million to cover the Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicle for the ADF and for export orders. Both jobs put a Melbourne shop inside a Norwegian missile supply chain and a German armoured vehicle one at the same time. Volumes are low and the tolerances are aircraft grade.

Rail is the segment most observers miss. Marand bought the British firm Atlas Engineering in 2001, moved the work to Australia and rebuilt it as Atlas Rail, and it is the only Australian designer and manufacturer of under floor wheel lathes, portal lathes, wheel presses and bearing presses. The catalogue runs on through ultrasonic wheel testing machines, traction motor drop tables, wheelset turntables, wagon and carriage lifters, draft gear removal units and brake test machines, and the company has worked on the design and commissioning of the largest rail maintenance workshops in Australia and New Zealand. Mining and energy customers including BHP and Rio Tinto take precision engineered equipment, and automotive work has included support to Carbon Revolution. Engineer, manufacture and sustain is how Marand describes itself, and for once the three-word summary is accurate.