Life after Ford and Holden: Australia could be a global force in automotive manufacturing as Walkinshaw declares Toyota Tundra, Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado just the beginning

Australia's booming automotive manufacturing business has no ceiling, says Walkinshaw, with the Melbourne-based remanufacture declaring it can compete with global markets when it comes to building cars.

So said Walkinshaw Group CEO Ryan Walkinshaw, who used the on-sale announcement of the Toyota Tundra to suggest Australia could be a global force in auto manufacturing.

The Walkinshaw Group certainly has the runs on the board, with the company now 10 times bigger than it was when it was working on HSV product with Holden.

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In those days, the company employed around 170 people. Today, it is home to more than 1500.

"We were a relatively small business when we were just doing HSV for Holden here in Australia, we only had about 170 employees at the time. But since the closing down of Australian automotive manufacturing for Toyota, Ford and Holden, that really allowed us to springboard into what we are today," Walkinshaw says.

"There was an enormous amount of talented individuals that were let go of by those big companies, and who were passionate about cars, and we became very quickly the largest car company in Australia, and that’s allowed us boom into what we are today.

"We’re running at about 1500 employees in Australia, we've gone from doing 2000 to 2500 HSVs a year to doing well over 10,000 to 12,000 units per year for our various customers, and growing every single year for the past six years."

And that, Ryan Walkinshaw said, is just the beginning. Not just for the Walkinshaw Group, but for the broader remanufacturing industry, including Nissan partner Premcar and Ford partner RMA.

Walkinshaw said the success of the remanufacturing programs prove Australia can compete on the world stage when it comes to auto manufacturing, and that he forecasts further growth as the industry continues to grow.

"It’s a great story for Australian automotive manufacturing. It shows we can do it. We’ve got some of the most talented engineers and designers and manufacturing staff in word," he said.

"It’s important hat Australia recognises that, and embraces it, because we can do incredible things when we put our minds to it. We can compete nationally and globally against other manufactures and different countries, and if we nurture that, and invest in it, and the government supports us, I believe we can grow that into vastly larger numbers than are doing today.

"We’ve got ambitions here, and it drives us forward. We don’t want to stop where we are. We ant to keep going and we want others to grow with us."