Mader Group celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025 as one of WA’s great success stories.
Mader Group has a history of breaking down pre-conceived notions of opportunity.
Its story started as a maintenance business founded by Luke Mader from the back of his ute in the east Kimberley.
Today, Mader Group has a footprint spanning four continents and more than 3,900 staff responsible for maintaining industrial equipment of all shapes and sizes.
It’s a business that offers opportunity, with tradespeople sitting at every level of the company, including prominently in the C-suite.
And it is a business that enables its staff to live and work all over the world without having to wade through mountains of paperwork and signoffs to move.
Mader Group chief operating officer Martin Willard knows the journey, having started for the company as a diesel mechanic 16 years ago.
“When you have got a coordinator and a manager who have worked on the tools and worked FIFO, they have this really intimate understanding of the trials and struggles that you face when you’re working remotely,” Mr Willard said.
“It is at the heart of what has built the business, really. Working for tradespeople in management roles.
“Although the business has scaled, you keep the fundamentals of tradespeople working for tradespeople, and the headcount associated with their teams, the same.
“Once you get the employee ratios right, it is all about training and mentoring coordinators and managers in how to run the business in the way we believe so that you keep that Mader culture and mateship strong.”
Staff attraction and retention has been among the most pressing issues for businesses of all shapes and sizes in recent years, with skills shortages across the economy well documented.
Mader Group has developed several initiatives that have contributed to the company’s high retention rates.
Two of the key measures are the Mates of Mader program and Global Pathways.
“If you are an employee of Mader and you bring a mate into the business, you get paid a cash bonus for bringing that person in,” chief financial officer Paul Hegarty said.
“That is a huge part of how we grow the business.
“Global Pathways has been structured in a very frictionless way for the employee.
“The employee literally says ‘Hey, I want to go to Canada in a month. Can I fly out on December 17?’
“We take care of all the paperwork and when they get into country, we help them set up all the necessary bank accounts and all those sorts of things.
“It is literally us supporting them in a very structured way that means they get to do it immediately, which is a very unique program no-one else is doing.”
For Mader Group, staying the course on its growth trajectory has meant a willingness to adapt to its customers’ needs.
At present, Mr Willard said that meant pivoting hard to supporting its clients’ electrification and decarbonisation ambitions.
But for all the constant growth in the industry, Mr Hegarty told Business News one thing would never change.
“Our workforce is a connected workforce through every mate in the field, as well as the people in the office, and I think you will never take that personal connection away from tradespeople,” he said.
“Personal connection is one of the main reasons why they probably want to work for Mader.”
