Back in 1983, 19-year-old Tony Pearce had the world at his feet. Quite literally, because as an apprentice electrician he headed overseas to represent Australia at the WorldSkills Competition.

“It was held in Austria, and I got to go there after winning the gold medal at the National WorkSkill Competition in Melbourne,” he explains.

Pearce competed in industrial wiring as part of the ‘Skillaroos’ team, and set the wheels in motion for a long-lasting commitment to help develop the next generation.

“I competed in 1983, and then in 1985 I got invited back to help on the technical side of running the electrical competition, and stayed involved for the next 14 or so years as the technical delegate for Australia.”

From Austria to Japan, via Taiwan, the UK, Germany, France, the US and Canada, Tony travelled widely to help nurture electrical skills across the world.

And, while he was doing that, he was also developing his own electrical business, which today supplies a range of electrical products and services to its customers across the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

 “We started in 1987 as a small operation, doing work in manufacturing, and we evolved into selling value adding services and wholesaling, too,” he explains.

“We expanded our product ranges, and today we have a small trade sales part of the business that specialises in the industrial and heavy power market, so the mining, industrial power and water utility type of markets, rather than the residential.

“We’ve established a pretty good reputation for performance and serviceability, and people have taken us with them as they’ve moved about to different companies – so word of mouth and reputation has been key for us.”

The competitive Darwin electrical wholesale market

With a laser focus on the business’s purpose and its target customer, ISAS – Integrated Switchgear and Systems – stocks a range of highly specialised equipment and has ‘good technology people who can support the products’.

In total, the business employs 75 people, with around 10 per cent of those working on the wholesale side of things, primarily with procurement teams and maintenance teams in the mines and other heavy industrial projects.

“There’s a lot of competition in Darwin, it’s a well-serviced market which is why we branch out into other areas – for example, we also have manufacturing and automation so we can provide the integration side of things too,” he explains.

Time is often of the essence when working with businesses such as mining operations, and having a ready supply of stock to deliver at a moment’s notice is often needed, helping to keep businesses running, employment steady and the local economy stable.

Helping recovery in the local community

And, it’s not just the business’s direct customers that are thankful for ISAS’s service.

At the time we spoke with Tony, floods were seriously affecting Darwin, and the ISAS team was working around the clock to help get the area back up and running in quick time.

“The floods affected the water supply and the pump station, so we’re flying in switchgear and different logistics to find solutions to get the power back to the pump station,” he says.

“The phone’s constantly ringing and emails are flying around trying to get these components and the electrical systems back online.

“A lot of the equipment needed has turned out not to be in stock in Australia, so we’re having to come up with different solutions and alternative proposals to find a solution – and we had the place back up earlier than it otherwise would have been.”

And that connection with the local area runs deep. Because not only has ISAS supplied – and maintains – a lot of the equipment that has been installed over the past 30-40 years in Darwin, it’s also a keen supporter of the local community.

“There’s a whole host of projects and initiatives we support in the local area – from children’s programs, charity initiatives, sports clubs, we really try to do whatever we can to help local young people, and make sure they can have more than they currently have,” says Tony.

“Lots of people, including many who work with us at ISAS, volunteer their time to support the local community and if we can help them do more by giving them some resources or funding then we’re very happy to.”

The wholesale side of the business has been a member of Gemcell since the turn of the century, and Tony says the contacts with suppliers and the networking with other independent wholesalers is hugely valuable.

“Even though some of us are technically competitors, there’s a genuine interest in the group to collectively improve our businesses and the industry,” he says.

And, while it may be a far cry from the days of the Skillaroos, having a cohort of like-minded people with whom to share experiences and have on-call should you need to mull over challenges is probably more important today than it has ever been.