Dana Australia opens new state-of-the-art facility

DANA Australia has officially opened its brand new, state-of-the-art facility in Keysborough, in Melbourne’s south-east.

The new facility, designed from scratch to meet the needs of Dana’s customers, replaces the outgoing Hallam facility. That original site, not far from the new facility, provided driveline solutions for the passenger and commercial vehicles for the past 40 years.

However, due to the ever-changing landscape, particularly with the passenger-car business, Dana has had to shift its focus towards growth and establish a new base.

“With this facility, we’ll be able to combine design, engineering and manufacturing to enable greater efficiencies. Having all of these assets under one roof will aid us in responding to customer needs more quickly, while maintaining high quality, thereby better supporting our customers in achieving their sales and production goals,” Dana President and CEO, Mr Jim Kamsickas said.

“This 10,000 square metre facility will help strengthen relationships we carry with us across the world in commercial vehicle, light vehicle and aftermarket space.

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“We believe in Australia, and we’re excited to invest in this industry. We see great things on the horizon,” Mr Kamsickas added.

Dana, in partnership with developers Frasers Property, officially set in motion the production for the new facility with a soil-turning ceremony back in April, 2016.

A goal was set to have the facility in operation by November that year (a rather optimistic 202 days). And, despite the wettest winter in 10 years, the completion date was only pushed back to mid-December.

Anthony Maugeri, the Southern Region General Manager of Frasers Property, said at the opening ceremony, “We’re not just a developer and the relationship finishes here. We’re also the owner and we look forward to a long and prosperous relationship.”

The brand-new Keysborough facility is the first of three new Dana facilities in development across the world, including a new axle manufacturing operation in the USA and a new gear manufacturing plant in Eastern Europe.

In Australia, exciting times are ahead for an industry looking to tackle the increasing popularity of Light Commercial Vehicles. And Dana has the right man in the driver’s seat – Peter Langworthy, Dana Australia’s Managing Director. His hard work has guided the business through this most recent transition, and the future looks bright.

“We’ve got more investments that we’re talking to Dana in the US about. More product that we’ll be releasing to the market for our current customers, but also for future customers,” Mr Langworthy said.

“It’s so important that we retain jobs in this country, it’s so important that we retain customers across our businesses, and that’s what we’re setting out to do.”