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Steele Steel at Wyalong, Central NSW, has been fabricating bulk grain handling equipment for about 18 years.
Formerly owned by Dave Perks and Donna Steele, they decided to hand over the reins in September 2018 to Dan Draper, who now owns and operates the thriving business.
"Dave still comes in and shares his knowledge, he does deliveries and pick-ups and still gets on the lathe and helps me out," Dan said.
"He has been a really good mentor."
Dan said the couple had gone about building the business up over the years, prior to him taking over, with a regular clientele base and shipping their products to locations all over Australia including Tasmania, and overseas to Africa and New Zealand
"Our aim has been to refine the production of the units, so we can get more products out the door at a more solid and continuous rate," he said.
Steele Steel fabricates seeder and grouper combo bins in a vast array of sizes, ranging from 4.2 up to 12 metres.
Two of their most commonly ordered units, include the 6 metre and 7.2 metre seeders on skell trailers, making it an easy "hook up and go" combination.
This in turn, makes it an easier option for our various clientele, both new and returning.
Their chaser bin range varies from 15 tonnes to 40 tonnes, with the 40 tonne model only just been rolled out to customers, these come in both single axle and walking beam options, with many optional extras that can be added.
"Steele Steel has earned a really good name for its chaser bins, seeders and groupers," Dan said.
"We are also well known for our Ezy Feeder range, which comes in 40, 50 and 70 bag units.
"The Ezy Feeder range has been around since 2004, so 16 years now, while the groupers have been going since about 1984, when the business was known as Cole Bulk Handling."
Dan is proud of the fact his business supports local employees and locally sourced products from around the Riverina and Central West.
"The majority of the steel we use is Australian BlueScope Steel, and all of our products are manufactured in the factory at Wyalong, Central NSW," he said.
At its peak, Steele Steel employs about 15 people, currently, there are 12 staff involved in the busy business.
Steele Steel's two most popular units are the grouper/seeder units and the 50 bag feeder trailer.
Steele Steel have just recently completed a new 7.2m grouper on a refurbished skell trailer for Tooma Station just out of Tooma in NSW and have received excellent feedback from the manager Toby Jones.
"I bloody love this unit, I should have bought one years ago, it is a good machine," was the response straight from Toby.