About
Primary Sales Australia
THE “WUNDOWIE FOUNDRY” CONNECTION
Until the management buy-out leading to the formation of Primary Sales Australia, the Fabcast range of wear-resistant tillage points had developed a competitor in Wundowie Foundry.
Wundowie had observed the market uptake for the new concept of cast points and, being a foundry, determined that there was room for another manufacturer.
The use of the particular hard-wearing alloy had been patented and therefore Wundowie could not use that alloy, therefore they pursued alternatives and decided to use a ductile cast alloy known as “S.G. Iron”.
To their credit, they developed some design shape attributes which were superior in performance to the Fabcast versions (which they design registered to prevent Fabcast from using them) and so the market was caught in something of a “Mexican Stand-off”.
Farmers either chose the cost-efficiency provided by the hardest wearing points or those which gave better design shape performance (parallel wings, recessed bolt-heads, reinforcing central spine, etc.) and while the two manufacturers remained in competition, the market remained caught in this dilemma.
However, as soon as it became clear that the intellectual property for the Fabcast tillage points could be obtained, the founders of P.S.A. entered into negotiations with Wundowie Foundry to “cross-licence” their respective Patent and Design Rights.
This was to enable one range of tillage tools to be manufactured incorporating the both the hardest wearing alloy from Fabcast and the superior design features from Wundowie and therefore break the impasse.
The two former competitors were now able to cooperate as partners, with Primary Sales Australia conducting all the design and development work, stocking, distribution and market awareness while Wundowie concentrated on pattern manufacture, casting and quality control.
The range then became known, for many years to follow, as “Wundowie-Fabcast” wear-resistant tillage points and it was from this product that so many new developments were to come about, particularly in the area of conservation tillage.