m e m b e r p r o f i l e
A WINDOW ONTO THE WORLD
INTRODUCING AWA MEMBER, DAVE O’ CONNELL
For more information, visit weatherallwindows. net. au or phone 1300 132 095.
For many years, Weatherall Windows Founder and CEO, Dave O’ Connell, has been fabricating the most advanced window system technology to meet the Australian climate head on. It’ s a passion that has driven him to pursue the latest in uPVC technology, manufacturing the highly acclaimed Rehau window system.
Beginning his career as a builder’ s labourer, Dave moved into windows- accidentally making aluminium secondary double-glazing. Then, after training in Germany in the mid 1980s, Dave started to make uPVC windows.
Originating from Bradford, Yorkshire, before making his way to Australia, Dave was initially sponsored by Everglaze – one of only two uPVC companies in Melbourne in the 1990s, indicating how far the industry has come since then.
This was the break that Dave needed.“ The company took me on to do an eight-storey Toorak apartment block with uPVC frames, as virtually nobody knew how to work with the material back then,” Dave recalls.“ I came to Melbourne with my wife, Audrey, on a 457 visa, and before too long we decided to stay. I had my visa extended before gaining permanent residency in 2002 and becoming naturalised in 2014.”
Before making the big move, Dave briefly visited Australia to get a feel for the place.“ Looking around for a couple of weeks, I was really surprised at the poor quality of the windows in the house I’ d been staying in,” he remembers. This and similar experiences taught him a lot about Australia’ s huge potential.“ Working for uPVC window companies after I arrived made me realise there was a growing market for windows with top-quality hardware, rather than the cheaper stuff I saw so often.”
That very early stage of uPVC windows in Australia involved some teething problems.“ In the beginning, I saw a lot of cheap uPVC imports that were not suited to Australia’ s harsh climate, they yellowed in UV light,” Dave says.“ When I first went looking for uPVC machinery in Thomastown after deciding to start my own business, I came across these cheap machines that were only capable of making an inferior product – plastic extruded over steel, as opposed to pure uPVC.”
Discarding the inferior machinery, Dave took over the Thomastown building and founded Weatherall Windows in 2007.“ At that early stage, I had one ute, no machines, and little money,” he remembers.“ When I went to the bank for a loan, they asked me how I was going to pay it back with no income. After managing to purchase some second-hand uPVC machines from Wales, I cleaned them up, loaded them into a container with my mates at Manchester airport, flew back to Australia and waited for them to arrive.”
During this initial period, Dave had to be resourceful.“ I was funding the company by doing casual work several days a week for my competitors, including some subcontracting work for a uPVC window installer,” he says.“ It was tough – I didn’ t make any cash for around the first year, and cash flow was vital in getting established.”
From this slender start, Weatherall Windows steadily expanded.“ I gradually got a little bit bigger and needed someone else to work in the factory,” he says.“ There were soon two people on the floor, then a salesman … and now I have 12 employees. We outgrew that first factory of 400 m 2 and moved to an expansive 1600 m 2 premises. As well as supplying uPVC windows to customers all over Victoria, southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, we also supply to trade customers, one of which was Everglaze who sponsored me in the first place. After supplying them for three years, the owner decided to retire in 2014 and we bought the company off him.”
Weatherall Windows has developed a solid growth trajectory.“ We’ ve been seeing a 15 to 20 per cent growth over the past three years, and we’ re now aiming to install machinery that will make windows quicker and easier to manufacture,” Dave notes.“ That increased efficiency
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