25 years of exceptional service

He worked around the clock to fill orders, get the required stock and deliver the finished items. In the background, Artemis was still working full-time. After finishing her day, she would head to the Botany factory and help Jim do the paperwork, pay the suppliers and staff and juggle the demands of keeping the wheels turning in a start-up business.

Those who have ventured out on their own know what a knife-edge existence can be. Every day brings challenges; most seem like huge obstacles, and the process is unforgiving and unrelenting.

“I worked with my dad, who had a powder coating business. I met Jim through that business when he was a consultant, teaching companies like ours how to make better use of their machines and build efficiencies into their business. I always wanted to build something, and my dad always encouraged me to follow my passion and take risks. He taught me that each failure brings you closer to success. I saw in Jim a person with technical expertise and an ethical quality that I admired. I suggested that we start our own business,” says Artemis Tzakos, Co-Founder of Sevaan Group.

There Artemis would join him after finishing her day job, helping him bend and do the riveting. A cousin recalls Artemis leaving the family home at 10 pm, pregnant with their first child, to head to the factory to help Jim finish a project.

On another occasion, Jim’s father was visiting from Greece, and Jim needed to get material to Melbourne. The two lads loaded up the ute and headed down the Hume Highway for an 18-hour round trip to deliver the material, have it machined and then transport it back to Sydney for the customer. The old ute had quickly become a vital tool for the business, and it was the same ute that ushered Artemis to the hospital for the birth of their first child.

“You have to be customer focused. Naturally, you focus on the bottom line, but it is not the primary driver. We have always returned to the ‘why’ when making decisions. Why did we start this? It was because we believed in Australian manufacturing. We invested in technology and systems befitting large-scale manufacturing while still a small operation. Our belief and desire to offer the best made these decisions easier for us.”

The move to Green Acre was pivotal for other reasons. Jim and Artemis now had two little ones at home, and while Artemis’s mum would babysit during the day, Artemis would head home every two hours to feed the newborn before heading back to work.

“We were living in Strathfield at the time. It was a 7-minute drive to get home, and I could head there every two hours, feed the baby, give Mum a quick break and then head back to the factory. Without the support of our family and friends, it would have been extremely hard, and we are forever grateful for the help we got in those early days.”

“When we first started, we were able to rely on Jim’s contacts. He is a perfectionist and had already built up an enviable reputation in the industry. We had a plan, and it was on the back of Jim’s reputation that we believed we would make the plan a reality if we stuck to our motto of doing what we knew and doing what we do best.”

As the business grew, Jim and Artemis reassessed their plans and continued to look at the bigger picture.

“When you aim high, you must convince yourself you are already there and act accordingly. This gives the business and its customers confidence in your ability and the motivation to continually strive for excellence. It is something that is now taught in professional development programs. Jim and I were doing it subconsciously, and we still do,” says Artemis.

Now located in the large factory in Minto with the full suite of capabilities all under one roof, the vision has, in part, been realised. Recently appointing a new CEO, Jim and Artemis still have significant plans for the business. They are always looking for ways to improve and grow on what they have achieved over the past 25 years. Expanding capabilities, investing in new state-of-the-art technology, and the Sevaan Academy, where new people coming into the industry can receive advanced training and opportunities that benefit the Australian manufacturing sector, are very much in the pipeline.

I value the passage of knowledge and witnessing team members help and learn from each other. Sure, we all want to make money, but it is the spirit of the place and being part of another person’s progress and development that I truly value,” says Jim.

“You benchmark success using several parameters. Customer satisfaction, staff retention, business growth and, of course, the bottom line. These are tangible and measurable indicators. However, when a team member tells me they have bought a house, or their children are doing well in school, or they get promoted and become supervisors, or a past team member comes back to the business, these are the benchmarks that I value the most. It is so much more than a business; it is a place of learning and development, and seeing others succeed is the primary driver,” says Artemis.

Twenty five years is a significant milestone; however, for Jim, Artemis and the entire team, there is still more to achieve. An Australian success story with much more to come, we look forward to the next milestone and thank all our team members and customers for making this journey possible.