For Australian homegrown ‘nuts n’ bolts’ enterprise Speciality Fasteners (SpecFast), the classic Paul Kelly lyric rings true: From little things, big things grow.
Originally a small family-owned business that opened its doors in 1959, SpecFast has expanded over the years to more than 1800 employees across several locations in Queensland and New South Wales.
Perhaps not surprisingly — and certainly appropriately — SpecFast specialises in fasteners.
As Regional Business Manager Mark See very aptly puts it: “We hold things together. That’s what we do. Nuts and bolts are our business.”
SpecFast is the combined efforts of like-minded fastening experts who all share the same values of delivering first class customer service and high-quality industrial solutions, according to Mark.
“We operate out of eight locations; four in Queensland and four in New South Wales, and we carry in the vicinity of 30,000 industrial products at every branch serving multiple segments in the industrial space.”
The vast selection of products SpecFast offers allow them to serve a range of customers across multiple industries — construction, rail, roads, mining, and manufacturing — effectively putting their core business values into practice.
These core values are what led SpecFast to be acquired by Motion Australia in 2019, as part of their ever-growing family of trusted and celebrated Australian industrial solutions brands that come under Motion Australia’s group of businesses.
“Motion Australia is more than just a bearings business, they are a family of in-house solutions providers and supplier relationships that fulfill a broad spectrum of needs in the industrial space,” says Mark.
“We were looking to expand our distribution network and the acquisition quickly made that a reality for us with Motion Australia’s robust network of distribution channels.”
The versatility of SpecFast’s service offering is what has established them as a highly favoured and trusted fastener brand over the years.
“The products we stock are not limited to nuts, bolts and screws, we also supply the power tools, hand tools and safety gear as part of a complete fastening package,” notes Mark.
“Our Queensland operations supply a lot of the construction industry in the area and specialise in weather proofing structures to withstand extreme North coastal conditions like cyclones,” he explains.
“While on the other hand, our New South Wales branches cater more to the industrial manufacturing segment. In particular, we have a custom plastic fabrication workshop where we make speciality items that customers can’t get off the shelf.”
Some examples of SpecFast’s plastic fabrication projects are custom machine guards, isolation boards, wear strips, chain guides, and safety screens.
During the pandemic, SpecFast’s plastics workshop was a go-to for the COVID-safe screens that were implemented at business fronts and in shared public spaces.
“Regardless of what a customer’s requirements are, we will look to find a solution as experts in the field of building and manufacturing,” says Mark. “We will work with our customers to find the right solution for every application and our experts are willing to go that extra mile to ensure the solution is implemented properly.”
Becoming a part of Motion Australia’s group of business has broadened SpecFast’s customer reach significantly, Mark concludes.
“We have been able to promote our products and services through the Motion Australia businesses alongside their industrial solutions range, which has ultimately meant that we have a bigger product basket to put in front of our customers.”
