Apricus Australia

Chris Taylor

The growing focus on climate change and the increased level of Government funding has helped Apricus Australia increase revenue by 199.1% to $8.9 million in 2008-09, taking fourth place in the SmartCompany Awards.

Founder Chris Taylor, 43, says he started the business from home in 2005 because he wanted to be involved with a business that benefited the environment. "Installing an Apricus Solar Hot Water System is one of the most effective steps any household can take in reducing their carbon footprint," he says.

Start-up costs were more than $250,000 but by the second year of operation revenue had reached $1 million and has proceeded to double every 12 months. The business now has 15 staff and supplies products to 200 agents nationally. "We also export to

Indonesia and are in the process of appointing new agents in the UAE and Canada."
Keys to success have been educating the industry regarding the advantages of the new technology and gaining the support of plumbers and trades people to embrace the technology, he says. By partnering with local manufacturers, Apricus can also offer the longest warranty of any system sold in the Australian marketplace (15 x 10 years).

Another success factor was the 30 year life span of the system, confirmed by a recent independent report by the Australian Greenhouse office.

"We are always exploring new ways in which we can improve the system and we recently gained an extra 8% efficiency in heat exchange capacity by changing the configuration of the heat pipe in the evacuated tube," says Taylor.

He also worked hard on building relationships with resellers and attracting the right staff. "We have developed a relaxed, professional culture whereby we are investing in building strong relationships with our agents and resellers. We invest significant time to create a family team environment that extends beyond our internal work environment to include our agents and resellers."

Cashflow was a key challenge. "Managing growth through cashflow has placed pressure on the business in the short-term," he says. This year proved very difficult. "In April this year we launched a new product which forced us to source new components. Given the fact that we had no trading history with these suppliers they had us on a COD model," he says. "Over three months this product configuration grew to become 80% of our sales, which were in excess of $1.7 million a month. The biggest challenge was managing the cashflow to fund supply and keep up with the orders we were receiving."

To address the issue he entered into a debtor funding agreement with Bendigo Bank. "This has significantly reduced the short-term cashflow pressure and ensured that we are able to start to clear our back orders in the system which are currently sitting at 3.1 million.

"Another challenge has been meeting the shifting Australian Standards for SHW systems which have changed significantly since we entered the Australian marketplace. We have adapted our technology to meet these challenges, most of which were developed by our traditional competitors (flat plate companies)."

A final challenge has been constructing and building brand recognition across the national arena. "We have developed branding policies and agent resource manuals to guide everything from product placement to promotion."

The next big move is to launch our new international operation in Canada. "We have recently been approached by two of Canada's longest running plumbing wholesalers Andrew Sherrit and Frontier to supply them with our technology. We have recently found out that we have been specified as the solar thermal supplier to Whistler for the Vancouver Winter Olympics," he says.

The industry continues to change through the introduction of new technology. Regional demand for solar thermal products has also grown significantly over the past 12 months.

Growth brings its own challenges. "We anticipate our revenue will grow this financial year from 8.9 million to 20 million. Over the past 12 months the business has evolved from six of us working from my house at my kitchen table to a business with three warehouses, 15 staff, eight cars and over a million dollars worth of stock in inventory. Accordingly we have had to significantly grow our infrastructure in terms of people, warehousing and resources," he says. "The ride has been quite a challenging one."