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Peter Miller continues his exclusive interview with Ararat industry icon Peter Carthew

On August 8, 1977 , TCT began operating in a small building behind prestige in Ararat.

With the help of a staff of eight the company began building wiring harnesses for Gasons as well as international companies such as Massey Ferguson, Freighter Transport and Nissan.

Peter and co-director Gene Travaglini concentrated on establishing contracts while third director Barry Tyrell looked after production. But by Christmas, 1978, the company had hit financial difficulty and the Grampians sojourn seemed over.

Barry took up a position with Gasons, leaving Gene and Peter to see what they could do to salvage the company.

REEL GOOD BUSINESS: Peter Carthew in the AME Systems complex

That year Peter and Gene spent their entire Christmas break searching through files and making calculations to see if their little company had a future.

Peter said that after many days of reviewing, they had decided that there was a future but there would need to be renovations.

The first move was a new company name, CTA-an acronym for Carthew and Travaglini Australia- and then changes were made. Peter and Gene still chased contracts but they also shared responsibility for what happened on the production floor.

“We introduced new processes during that Christmas of uncertainty,” Peter said.

“They were all developed out of necessity and we basically reinvented ourselves over Christmas,” he said.

Peter said the good thing about being under pressure to save the company was that it proved the making of the partnership.

“When you’re under pressure, you re-evaluate everything and that situation brings out the best in you,” Peter said.

The company built rapidly through the following decade and Peter and Gene thrived as they watched other wiring harness businesses disappear.

Peter said Australia had lost thousands of employees from the harness wiring industry since the mid-1970’s.

“Back then there were 26,000 Australian people employed in the cable industry with many companies,” he said.

In 1982, Peter and Gene were offered a joint venture by Detroit industry giant General Motors to make harnesses for their Australian vehicles. But there was soon an economic downturn and the deal was withdrawn.

General Motors approached Peter and Gene again in 1989 and a partnership was s truck under the name Packard CTA. The Ararat directors owned 40% of the company and General Motors the rest.

Packard CTA started trading in January 1990, 12 months before the Gulf War. For two and a half years the partnership proved fruitful before the recession hit and off-shore competition became heavy.

“We had a big battle with several Japanese companies including major player Yazaki for market share”, he said.

“The experience cost us $15 million and our partnership with General Motors but we believe it cost Yazaki $100 million.

“General Motors picked up $12.6 million of our tab and Gene and I picked up the other $2.4 million.”

The aftermath from the corporate war was that Gene stuck with his life plan and returned to Melbourne where he is a successful businessman. He also enjoyed sporting success with a partnership in the Lee Freedman-trained Melbourne cup winner Doreimus.

Peter said he and Gene had a fantastic partnership and he was full of praise for Gene.

“In all those years together we only ever had three fights and I caused them all,” he said.

Peter stayed in Ararat and once again started the business from scratch, this time with brother Rick having an interest.

Peter was the finance brain of the new partnership and Rick had the engineering acumen.

“Everything was done to the letter because that’s how they operate,” he said.

“We bought the building in Ararat for $1.5 million and we started again with 26 employees.”

The business started in June 1992, as Ararat Manufacturing Enterprises which would later be changed to AME Systems. It’s competition was all off-shore but Peter’s team had plenty of contacts in the industry who were only too willing to deal with him again.

The only problem was the amount of business available. It was the middle of 1992 and the economy was trying to recover from the Gulf War. Companies such as Kenworth, one of Peter’s biggest buyers, were only building one or two trucks a day while they now build 11.