Australian SME and integrated logistics support specialist Logistic Solutions Australasia (LSA) has been acquired by German-based Rheinmetall Technical Publications (RTP) and, as a result, is offering enhanced services to both Defence and industry.
Director Glen McNamara notes that there will be no change to the way LSA does its business, as it will remain semi-autonomous, but sees greater opportunities as a result of the combination of his company’s ILS expertise and RTP’s technical documentation experience
“RTP is a German-based company doing a lot of work in the UK with Airbus, the German Bundeswehr and they have a Canadian business as well. So we saw it as a fantastic opportunity for us to use our combined expertise, not only domestically but in that it would also provide some international opportunities for us as well,” McNamara explained.
“For us it is business as usual and nothing changes, the company retains its name and corporate identity, I’m still the Director of the company and my General Manager is still the same.”
McNamara added that RTP will not influence any day to day operations of LSA and the only internal change will be the additional reporting lines required by the German company.
“They will take the expertise we have and use that to grow their ILS capability, not only back in Germany, the UK and other businesses, but to also use that as a launching pad into Asia,” he said.
The majority of work performed in Australia by LSA to date has been in the land space and McNamara noted that although domestic work with DMO and industry will remain the core business, future work in the aviation and naval sectors is an exciting opportunity.
“It’s important for us and it’s in RTP’s interest for us, to stick to what we do best and that’s providing ILS services and technical documentation. We don’t provide products or military hardware or equipment or anything of that nature, we’re purely a service-based business,” McNamara continued.
“Our main client is the Department of Defence and we’ll continue to maintain our relationship but we’re really keen to get into the aviation and naval spaces, leveraging off the expertise that RTP have with the development of technical documentation and those sorts of things.”
McNamara said that the experience LSA can bring through its long experience in the Australian Defence space will also bring additional opportunity and noted that one of the near-term areas of interest will be supporting Defence in an upcoming tender for services work on Land 2072 Phase 2B, Defence’s Battlespace Communications System project.
The ability to take ILS and technical documentation information from an overseas prime, for example, and produce an Australian solution which meets Defence’s requirements is also one of LSA’s strengths, McNamara said.
“There are subtle differences between the ways Australian forces support their equipment compared with other western forces for example,” he said.
“Mission profile is one, the environment is different, the skill sets are different, and the levels of repair can be different. And what you need is someone who understands those unique Australian requirements, to take what the overseas prime has, tweak it and make it fit into the Australian support infrastructure environment, and we do that very well.”
McNamara said that RTP are world leaders in the technical documentation space and LSA is keen to import that expertise into Australia to support its Defence and industry clients, as well as the potential for expanding into Asia.
“We have been invigorated by our association with RTP and going forward is an exciting prospect for us, we are looking to the future with a renewed energy. We’re all very excited about what the future will hold,” he detailed.
“But in the meantime I will continue to foster and promote the close staff family environment that we have established at LSA over the last 16 years.”
This article first appeared in Australian Defence Magazine VOL.23 No.3, March 2015