What does it take to reach an Olympic standard?

For the final profile in our Celebrating Australian Made series, we look at Ballarat’s Alevo. It doesn’t just believe Australian made products developed at home can complete on the world stage; it’s showing how it can be done. 

From massages to medical, one Australian Made business, Alevo, is helping Australia’s healthcare industry raise the bar for treatment and lower stress for patients.

The company has seen its consistent focus on quality and patient care help them to grow and develop to become a global exporter and even supply Australia’s Olympic team.

And much like the Australian Olympic team, they are not only setting the bar for country but also for the rest of the world.

Beginning their journey as a family-owned business before becoming part of public company, before returning to a privately-owned operation, Alevo (formerly known as Athlegen) has spent 35 years manufacturing in Australia and expects to continue to do so well into the future. 

In this time, they have become a global powerhouse in designing and manufacturing portable and electric massage and treatment tables. 

“Alevo is in business for the long haul, not short-term profits, and this is reflected in all aspects of its operations” the company says.

Alevo CEO Stephen Falkiner says this long-term mentality shows in how they build their products.

“It’s about longevity, durability, and making a low-maintenance, purpose-built product up to the task,” Falkiner says.

“Probably about only one in 1000 tables we’ve made had ever needed a service, we’ve even had reports of some being used continuously for 25 years with very little maintenance.”

He says it’s not just about manufacturing in Australia; it’s also about using Australian products, which he believes plays a significant role in their tables’ durability.

“We use heavy duty Australian made steel for the tables as well as Australian made Dunlop foams in our cushioning systems,” Falkiner explains.

The group has also expanded, acquiring other Australian businesses as it grows.

This includes acquiring Centurion, which began manufacturing portable treatment tables in Sydney three decades ago. For the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Centurion supplied all the treatment tables for the games. 

“This global tender was the largest for treatment tables ever put out,” Falkiner says. He added that “Athlegen has also been supplying tables to the Olympic team for years and continues to do so.”

Alevo also owns Forme Medical, which has been making medical examination couches for more than 25 years. Falkiner says, “at the time of purchase, the bulk of their manufacturing was in Thailand, we brought it all back to Australia, back to Ballarat.”

He says even as the company grows it has held an Australian made mindset, and the assurance of quality that comes with that stamp is paying off.

The company is now entering the next phase of its story, moving into a new, purpose-built, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Ballarat, the town where its story began.

“This new factory is the next stage of our development and integrates the latest technology,” Falkiner says. “When it was built, the first piece of equipment moved into it, before anything else, even the racks, was a brand new automated robotic welder, so that we were starting off with state-of-the-art equipment.”

Alevo is preparing to reach a milestone of delivering more than one hundred thousand treatment tables to customers in more than 40 countries. 

Celebrating Australian Made is an annual editorial series, coinciding with Australian Made Week and commissioned by the Australian Made Campaign to share its members’ stories. For more information on how you can get your products certified as Australian Made, visit this link.