Magellan Power has grown from a sole trader business to a widely recognised manufacturer with more than 50 staff since it started out 28 years ago.
The winner of this year’s Rising Stars award for family business, Magellan company has supplied DC and AC power systems and associated equipment to numerous sectors including, hospitals, substations, oil rigs, airports and mines.
It has supplied battery chargers for BHP, Essential Energy, AGL’s Liddell coal power station, and Horizon Power’s Onslow microgrid.
As the business expanded on the back of securing work with these major clients and many more, several family members of director Masoud Abshar became employed at Magellan. His daughters Jolleh and Shireen work in marketing and business improvement, and their husbands, Baris Celep and Rory Bannon, are employed as sales engineers. Masoud’s sister Nasrin is the stores manager, and his nephew Sepehr Abshar is also a sales engineer. Masoud’s wife, Lynne Abshar, is a co-director.
And while there’s obviously a large family element to the business, Magellan prides itself on an ethnically and culturally diverse work environment. More than 23 different nationalities are represented among the company’s 57 employees.
Despite its successes, the company’s growth has not been without hurdles. Its revenue halved and full-time staff numbers fell from 45 to 24 between 2013 and 2016 during the resources sector slowdown in Western Australia.
During this period, however, the company maintained a strong investment in technology research and development. This enabled Magellan to capitalise on the resurgence of the sector, and it is currently experiencing its greatest growth since the business began in 1991.
The company’s experience during the weak period of resources activity has taught it to look at the bigger picture, and it has implemented a 25-year strategy to ensure the family business continues into the distant future
