2019 marks 30 years in operation for Australian Clutch Services.
Australian Clutch Services have recently celebrated their 30th year in operation. The clutch, flywheel and hydraulic specialists based in Adelaide, celebrated the milestone on January 26, 2019, and have reflected back on 30 years in the Australian automotive aftermarket.
“ACS has changed almost beyond recognition since we started back in 1989,” Australian Clutch Services Founder and Managing Director, Brenton Jordan says.
“We started out by remanufacturing clutch components, but due to significant changes in the market, becoming a manufacturer and supplier of new components became the obvious choice moving forwards. We still do a very limited amount of remanufacturing for a small number of classic car applications where new components are no longer available, but our core business model has certainly changed dramatically.”
In the late 1990’s Australian Clutch Services introduced the Xtreme Clutch performance brand, closely followed by Xtreme Outback. These performance brands have been a major contributor to the growth and development of the business along with the core brand, ClutchPro, which supplies OE quality replacement clutch components mainly utilised by the trade. “ClutchPro is still our biggest brand, but the performance brands have allowed us great expansion into international markets,” says Brenton.
“These brands have built a reputation all over the world for offering the highest quality, performance and durability. With one of the most comprehensive clutch research and development facilities anywhere in the world, our design team are able to design and test high end performance kits for some of the latest vehicles in the market along with custom vehicles that have had engine and gearbox conversions.”
Australian Clutch Services are proud of their quick development times for some of the latest vehicles on the market. “Being a smaller organisation gives us more flexibility with taking on development projects for new vehicles,” Brenton says. “We are regularly the first performance clutch upgrades on the market for the latest vehicles which has been a major contributor to our success in Europe. By being the first to market, we are often able to move into niche performance markets which then spread very quickly.
A perfect example of this is our Ford Focus RS performance upgrades that have been a major success for us in the UK and US markets.”
ACS started their export program in 2006 and now cover nearly every continent. “The export program began with New Zealand and has been steadily expanding ever since,” says Brenton. “Our developments in Europe, particularly in the UK, have been fantastic and we have now started a new brand in the United States which has been a large project for us over the last few years.”
Despite major developments in their export markets, ACS is still heavily committed to the Australian market and continue to build infrastructure to support their Australian distribution network. “We
are still adding more warehouses into the Australian market and have recently added a second warehouse in both Sydney and Melbourne. We are always building on our range of standard replacement, commercial, agricultural and performance products as well as our extensive range of hydraulics and accessories to ensure our distributors have access to the products they need, when they need.”