“We’re very big on growth,” he says. “We like to progress people through the business, before we go and outsource other employees. A lot of our staff started out on the factory floor as physical labour and they’ve progressed either into the office to do design work, or they run the factories.” Again, Darren also believes a lot of the company’s success lies with how they collaborate with trades. “We do a lot of work on site with the trades, and if we have a new builder coming on board, we’ll send out a couple of our guys to go and train their carpenters for a few days so they get familiar with our system. We also do a lot of work with their drafting teams and designers. Our guys will go through their projects and show them a better way to do their own design work.” Aus Steel’s people also regularly sit down with the electricians and plumbers in order to seek their input when they are doing designs. “We ask them what height do you want your plumbing noggins and that sort of thing and we work it into the design, which is pretty much unheard of for frame and truss suppliers,” says Darren. Moving forward, Aus Steel’s goal is to continue fostering those collaborative relationships, with trades, employees, and clients alike. As per Darren’s personal philosophy, they also want to keep getting better in every respect. For example, they want to become more sustainable, and they have already taken major steps in that direction. “Whenever we can we use recycled materials. All of our strapping is a recycled product. We also NOVEMBER 2024
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