Our subsidiaries are typical niche marketers, each with its sights locked on only one or two segments of a broader market. Meeting the needs of these segments is no easy matter since it takes years to acquire the right knowledge. Once that knowledge has been acquired, however, the company possessing it usually takes pole position in the pecking order of suppliers, and that, fortunately for us, is the case with all of our subsidiaries.

Galco was formed in 1947, making it one of the oldest suppliers to the building industry in New Zealand. Although the company has been a manufacturer for most of its life, it is today principally an importer, known especially for its knack of finding interesting products all over the world. Galco focuses on the HVAC segment of the building industry, and in particular on the companies that install HVAC systems in both commercial and residential buildings.

AST introduced the KeyWatcher electronic key management concept to Australia around 20 years ago, and now it is the single biggest distributor of KeyWatcher systems in the world. The company owes much of its success to the willingness of its management to customise its imported software products to suit the special needs of local customers. AST has recently extended its geographical reach by opening a subsidiary in Macau to serve the casino industry there. The company has also entered a new segment of the general physical asset management market by the addition of its new AssetTracker and Omniscout products.

Vendart too has been in business for around 20 years. It serves the water analysis segment of the general analytical chemistry market, although it has recently begun also to sell products for wine and urine analysis. Vendart has an especially close relationship with LaMotte Company, a global name in water analysis, whose reagents we manufacture under licence in Australia. We also have an exciting new partnership with Germany’s Macherey-Nagel, another big name in water analysis, and the Italian manufacturer, Milwaukee.

For more information about our subsidiaries please follow these links to their websites: