The leading electronics manufacturers in both Australia and New Zealand have become one team
Quadrant Private Equity supports Circuitwise Electronics growth with acquisition of New Zealand's Nautech Electronics
Press Release: 10 September 2024
Sydney-based Circuitwise Electronics has signed an agreement to acquire Nautech Electronics, New Zealand’s leading electronics design and manufacturing specialist. The transaction is expected to complete at the end of September 2024.
Circuitwise and Nautech are two of the leading contract electronics manufacturing companies in their respective geographic markets, with a shared focus on quality, reliability and responsiveness for their customers. The partnership extends both companies' capability and capacity, providing customers with a deeper service offering and a second manufacturing location in the Australia and New Zealand region.
Geographical presence was a key consideration in this strategic partnership. Local manufacturing is increasingly important for Australian and New Zealand companies looking for better delivery speed and reliability; enhanced communication and responsiveness; collaboration and support for testing and design for manufacture; reduced vulnerability to geopolitical disputes and tariff fluctuations; and stronger intellectual property protection. With its close ties to Australia under the auspices of the Closer Economic Relations Agreement, New Zealand provides this assurance.
Circuitwise Electronics’ CEO, Serena Ross, said she had been looking for companies that shared Circuitwise’s obsession with quality, and Nautech was the perfect match.
“Quality is their number one priority, and we wanted to partner with another company with leadership and people who have the same culture as us,” Serena said. “Nautech has a strong position in the aerospace industry, which supports our strategy of servicing mission-critical sectors with a high requirement for quality assurance. Nautech also has several new capabilities to help us deliver an even better service to our customers across Australia and New Zealand.”
Nautech CEO Laurie Kubiak said: “Our company wanted to continue its rapid growth and had been looking for a partner with complementary capabilities to help drive that growth. Circuitwise was a perfect match as it has strengths in different sectors and technical capabilities. Combining the two offers a very powerful service for product manufacturers across both countries.”
Nautech extends Circuitwise’s offering, with advanced testing facilities and a team of production engineers and electronics designers. The testing facilities include clean rooms and environmental test chambers to recreate extreme temperatures and vibration. Clean rooms are typically required for space and medical applications. The production engineers support the quality process by ensuring all products meet requirements. The design team focuses on providing customers with a complete service to ensure higher reliability of their designs, including design for manufacture.
Similarly, Circuitwise has capabilities that complement Nautech, having developed a sophisticated enterprise manufacturing system in-house, supported by custom hardware solutions, which provides the group with a clear competitive advantage.
Circuitwise’s proprietary system enables an unprecedented level of traceability that underpins their quality assurance, proven with over 15 years of operation in medical device manufacturing under ISO 13485 and, more recently, under the AD 9100D for aerospace applications. In the past four years, continual improvements to these systems have delivered a three-fold increase in revenue while maintaining the same team size.
Laurie Kubiak said a recent SIRI (Smart Industry Readiness Index) assessment placed Nautech in the top 5% of advanced manufacturers in the world. Combining this with Circuitwise’s advanced systems will re-enforce the group’s market leading capabilities, globally.
The acquisition of Nautech is the first following the investment in Circuitwise Electronics by Quadrant Private Equity last year. Quadrant invests in companies with a high growth potential and supports companies develop clear business plans and long-term strategies to benefit all stakeholders.
Quadrant was highly impressed by the leadership team, the culture and the systems at Circuitwise. The purpose of the acquisition, from Quadrant’s perspective, is to build on that winning formula and transfer it to like-minded companies in the same sector.
Marcus Darville, Chair of Circuitwise, said: “It was clear from the outset that the founders Andrew and Alison Turner, Laurie and the broader Nautech team shared Circuitwise’s strong passion for innovation, an unwavering focus on quality and a culture of going above and beyond for their clients. We are committed to continuing to invest in the latest technology and supporting ingenuity to accelerate the combine group’s leadership in electronics manufacturing and product engineering, globally.”
The acquisition is good news for all stakeholders, including staff, management and customers. The leadership team at Nautech will remain in place and the Nautech brand will continue. Any changes will focus on productivity improvement leveraging Circuitwise’s systems.
With this acquisition, the Circuitwise group of companies will be the largest electronics manufacturing service that operates wholly within Australasia. Customers will benefit from the increased capability of the group and the assurance of a second manufacturing site to support them.
For more information contact:
Serena Ross, CEO
Circuitwise Electronics sales@circuitwise.com.au
Laurie Kubiak, CEO
Nautech Electronics
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