Spitwater Australia
Located in and industrial estate literally minutes from the Sydney to Melbourne Hume Freeway, SPitwater Australia has been servicing a well established national and international client base from the area since 1982 when the now 48 year old business and its founders moved to Albury from Italy.
The company is 100% Australian and privately owned, employing around 40 full time staff as well as a number of locally provided labour hire personnel.
Once established, the company began by producing high pressure water cleaners in what was supposed to be a semi-retirement business for the founders after 20 years of successful manufacturing in the same industry in Europe. As the business started to expand, however, the idea of retirement was soon forgotten and the company started to grow into what it is today. As a leader in the industrial equipment market, Spitwater Australia designs and manufactures three product lines. As the name suggests, the company makes high pressure water cleaners for heavy duty industrial cleaning applications under the ‘Spitwater’ brand, as well as LPG and diesel/ kerosene portable and industrial space heaters under the ‘Jetfire’ and ‘Spitfire’ brands.
These products are all manufactured in-house, with supplied components consisting mostly of items not produced in Australia such as piston pumps, electric and petrol engines, high pressure hose and wheels etc.
Spitwater Australia also imports and sells a complete range of industrial wet and dry vacuum cleaners, including some very large units for highly specialised applications.
The suggestion of the Murray region as the new home for the business in Australia was made by the Australian distributor at the time, when the firm was still headquartered in Italy. ‘Albury turned out to be an ideal place to settle,’ says Andrea Martinotti, General Manager and son of the company’s founders. ‘When they were thinking about moving to Australia, my parents also looked at cities such as Gosford and Newcastle but they didn’t have any particular advantages over where we are now. There are a lot of lifestyle rewards in this area which are personally very satisfying, but which also flow on to our business.’ ‘Having grown up in an industrial Italian city, living in a place with clean air and open space was, and still remains, very important to us. What’s more, when we moved the factory here we came from Europe at a time when people didn’t commute, as we know it in Australia and to be able to live a short distance from the new plant was a significant consideration for my parents. The reality is that 25 years on, an overwhelming majority of our staff lives between only 5 and 15 minutes from the factory, a fact the company believes has helped it to maintain a loyal and stable workforce over the years.
The practical advantages of being in its location were a further major consideration for Spitwater Australia for the smooth delivery of its products Australia wide. Being on the Hume Highway, Albury is well positioned for road freight to all the major capital cities where Spitwater’s state distribution and service centres are located. For import and export as well (the company presently exports to 20 countries on 4 continents) Albury is conveniently placed, being only 3 hours drive to the Port of Melbourne and even less to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.
