Avalon Airshow 2023

Harbro Engineering General Manager and Engineer, Alexander Harris attended the Avalon Airshow on February 28th to March 3rd to canvas opportunities for our engineering and additive manufacturing capabilities in the defence and aerospace industries. There is no greater platform in Australian manufacturing to seek out contacts and make business connections for these sectors.

We attended the event to assess how Harbro Engineering’s current capabilities matched the requirements of the primes to increase our chance of entering the relevant supply chains to claim a share of work on offer in the coming years.

Alexander had the opportunity to attend the Meet the Primes program presented by defence experts, from companies including, Airbus Australia, BAE Systems Australia, CAE Australia, and Downer Defence.

The organisers of the event explained the aim of the program was to:

• Help link small business capability into the prime’s supply chain,
• Promote the capabilities required for some of Australia’s biggest programs,
• Provide small businesses the opportunities to get their questions answered by the right people,
• Kickstart relationships that may become highly beneficial to both parties.

 

“Giving SMEs and Primes the opportunity to meet, communicate and collaborate is key to Australia’s successful delivery of vital projects.”

Tim Walmsley, the CEO of BenchOn

 

The Australian + New Zealand Defence Directory was another major contact at the event. ANZDD offer packages to subscribe in their directory which provides direct connection with the most comprehensive list of large project integrators’ supply chain and procurement servers across all aspects of the defence industry.

Overall, the event was an amazing eye opener to what lies ahead for the advanced manufacturing industry in Australia, and Harbro Engineering are excited for the opportunities for us to contribute to its growth.