Diebold Plans Australian Expansion

Raising the stakes further, the company’s Australian managing director, Reg Bohler, says there will be strategic acquisitions in the near future – possibly somewhere in the cash-in-transit or manpower businesses. Diebold has been growing steadily since its acquisition of Vangren Technology and Cardinal Brothers around 18 months ago. There are now has 240 Diebold staff in Australia and around 80 company service vehicles on the road, while turnover has trebled. Bohler is reluctant to say too much about the company’s plans but it’s clear he sees plenty more growth to come. “With the acquisitions of Cardinal Bros and Vangren Diebold is able to offer financial organizations full security solutions from security doors, rising screens, anti-jump barriers and vacuum tubes to the full gambit of electronic solutions,” Bohler explains. “We’ve been going for 18 months and things are beginning to take off for Diebold,” he says. “We’re looking for expansion not just in terms of acquisition but through organic growth by pushing our customer base outside of banking.” The company’s long term association with the banking sector goes back to the middle of the last century but according to Diebold’s NSW state manager, Jeff Tonazzi, that mix is rapidly changing. “About 18 months ago our business would have been 50-50 between the finance and general business sectors but that’s changing fast – it’s probably 90–10 now with a huge increase in government, retail and prisons…” Tonazzi says. According to Tonazzi, the company has been able to get strength from all the companies it has acquired and is selling to that mix across Diebold’s entire product range. As an example, Cardinal Bros is now selling product to Diebold customers globally. Another plus for the company is that improvements in ATM security levels are leading to ATM upgrade or replacement. Manufacturing of ATMs is one of Diebold’s traditional strengths and both this sector and the security business have pushed the company’s worldwide profits to record highs in the past 12 months. “In 2 years we want Diebold Security and ATM Solutions to be much bigger in Australia,” says NSW sales manager, George Salmon. “But although we want to be bigger we want the same high levels of service to apply.”