- What is the Australian Panels story?
Australian Panels is Australia’s leading manufacturer of engineered board products for all joinery, flooring and wall applications. Manufactured products include a range of raw and decorative products, from made-to-order doors, flooring, shelving and components, and prefinished panels.
Australian Panels products are designed and engineered locally. Our sustainably grown Australian Made and Owned range is purpose-built for the way we live and the climate we live in.
Australian Panels (a Borg company) has a remarkable history of growth and innovation. Founded by brothers Michael and John Borg on the Central Coast of NSW, Australian Panels manufactures and markets for such brands as STRUCTAflor, STRUCTApanel, easycraft, COLOURpyne, decofoils and inBuilt
- The business has grown over the years on the back of significant capital investments and a commitment to product innovation and development. Walk us through this process.
Australian Panels is a company driven by a steadfast commitment to product innovation and development. With a forward-thinking approach, they consistently strive to push the boundaries of what is possible in their industry. With continuous enhancements to their manufacturing capabilities to support supply chains and extensive research and development, they continuously seek out cutting-edge technologies and materials to enhance their product offerings.
With manufacturing operations in Oberon, Somersby and Charmhaven in NSW, and Mount Gambier in SA, these facilities have grown over the years on the back of significant capital investments in automated technologies. This commitment has seen the company rise to the top as best demonstrated by the world class innovations in place in all four of these major manufacturing facilities.
The Oberon facility manufactures medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particleboard, Charmhaven produces made-to-order kitchen cabinet doors, Somersby site manufactures decorative panels, made-to-order benchtops, shelving and components. The Mt Gambier facility produces particleboard and melamine panels.
- Discuss some of the company’s milestone moments.
Australian Panels has the unique opportunity to be a hands on, tenacious and entrepreneurial privately Australian Owned and operated business. That has been not only the core of our success but the core of our organisation. This has given Australian Panels the opportunity to be a vertically integrated company that is able to push the boundaries and create some incredible products and brands that we are extremely proud of. On the back of this, the business group has grown from a small employer to over 2200 people predominantly located in regional areas.
The business has been able to invest in the development of green technologies including Australia’s largest rooftop solar system in Oberon. This has seen over 53,000 solar panels installed across our network of facilities allowing the company to become more energy efficient and avoiding 10,500 tonnes of Co2 emissions per year.
- Australian Panels has a substantial environmental policy. Can you explain what this entails?
Australian Panels has a huge environmental focus including our recycling initiatives, waste handling, water reprocessing and storage along with substantial investments into solar and our own gas powered turbine.
We also collect and divert approximately 150,000 tonnes of waste timber that would have typically ended up in landfill. This number is expected to increase significantly over the next 12-24 months as it is re-processed back into particleboard.
Another component is the collection of MDF dust, and waste by product from plantation pine forests to repurpose for energy and landscaping materials. Whilst MDF board offcuts are repurposed into pallets and bearers to generate packaging from waste materials. The 4-Megawatt Gas Turbine Generator was installed in 2020 at Australian Panels’ Oberon facility, supporting the site’s power consumption. Combined with the existing solar panels, the site will be powered by sustainable energy. This is something we are extremely proud of and are continually striving for ways to improve what we are already doing.
- What is the product offering at Australian Panels? Detail your current product range.
Australian Panels product offering is vast and covers everything from commodity MDF and particleboard to highly decorative pre-finished panels, lining boards and battens.
The available ranges include:
Flooring: Australian Panels flooring range is backed by 50 years of trust, innovation and dedication to the ever-changing lifestyle and construction requirements of the Australian building industry. With an extensive range of options for subfloors, suspended floors in multi-storey construction, building additions and extensions along with oversized commercial flooring spaces. This includes our very popular YELLOWtongue, REDtongue and BLUEtongue STRUCTAflor GP, STRUCTRAflor H2 and R-flor products. With the addition of our underlay products STRUCTApanel H2 12mm Non-Structural Panelling and 5.5 HPF Underlay.
Panelling: Our panel products consist of STRUCTApanel H2 Treated 9mm Structural and 12mm Non-Structural Panelling. Australian Panels decorative wall and ceiling brand easycraft offers profiles from the classic VJ panel through to the designer Silhouette range. All easycraft panels come pre-primed ready for easy installation in both wet and dry areas for residential and commercial applications.
Board: The CUSTOMwood (MDF) and CUSTOMpine (Particleboard) ranges both have raw and laminated options that make a versatile product to use in interior fitout solutions. Whether it be for the reliable quality that guarantees uniformity in size, density, and strength or for applications that are subject to humidity or moisture, such as bathroom vanities and kitchen cupboards.
Decorative: Australian Panels has a decorative solution for every room and space throughout your build. Elegant, practical, and versatile, we have it covered from internal joinery applications and surface finishes to pre-finished decorated battens and internal doors. This includes our COLOURpyne Decorative Melamine Board, inBuilt and decofoils ranges.
Mouldings: ULTRAprime MDF Mounding’s are manufactured in a wide range of design styles, our mouldings and architraves are produced from premium grade MR CUSTOMwood MDF. They are pre-primed and ready to use on internal decorative trims, such as door jambs and skirtings and are guaranteed not to warp, buckle or split.
- Looking ahead, what plans have you got for the future of Australian Panels?
The future for Australian Panels is limitless. The continuation to innovate and invest in leading edge technologies to ensure we are manufacturing incredible products. Focus on supporting, training and investing in our people and local communities to produce low cost sustainable products.
