With a proud history of innovation and equipment development, SECA – who are celebrating their 50th year of operation in 2017 – offers a wide range of sewer and drain cleaning options to utilities and councils across Australia.
It all began when company founder George Rose was on an overseas working holiday in the 1960s, with his observations of equipment and practices whilst working in his trade as a plumber on several sites throughout Europe.
On returning home he established GH Rose & Co., and shortly after formed Rose & Milne in Double Bay in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.
There were several different methods of drain cleaning in Europe and the USA, and he was impressed with the strong construction of the cable and driving power of the Electric Eel machine manufactured in Ohio, US. He established a great relationship with the Hale Family and SECA has represented that company since 1967.
With minimal capital, it took some time to convince plumbers that cable drain cleaning was the way of the future, so Mr Rose established a separate business called Sewer Services to advertise and expand the awareness of the machines in the industry.
The first customer was SG McElroy & Son, who are today in their third generation of business and still have the original drive unit.
Once established, Mr Rose then returned overseas to several trade shows and conventions from which he added the CHERNE Plug range, Burton small drain cleaning equipment and Flexible Pipetools and Sewer Equipment Company of America (O’Brien) solid rodding equipment.
This success caught the eye of a large electrical contracting and servicing company, Hodgson & Lee, who wished to introduce a plumbing division to their already expanding business.
Their injection of capital soon saw Sewer Services as an exclusive drain sewer cleaning business with branches Sydney-wide and operating 30 service vehicles.
Again, on an overseas trip, Mr Rose secured the agencies for high-pressure water jet cleaners which led to various agencies for high- pressure hoses, nozzles and accessories.
With the introduction of water pressure jet cleaning, he realised the need for wholesale agencies to be better promoted, thus forming Sewer Equipment Company Australia (SECA) as a truly wholesale business.
SECA then began manufacturing many products themselves, including rods, tools and hybrid drive units for both flexible and solid rodding known as the “Rose Rodder”.
In 1993 SECA started the local manufacture of water jetting units. Large success was achieved with the Projet Muni, aimed at the local government.
The company sold close to 330 of these units Australia-wide. SECA also started selling small jetting units into the plumbing market, which at the time was a new form of drain cleaning for plumbers to accept – as was the Electric Eel 30 years earlier – but today it is a common tool for most plumbers involved in drain cleaning.
In 1989 SECA moved into supplying pipeline inspection equipment. As this was fairly new and costly technology to sell, for a short time, SECA moved into contracting and started up a separate CCTV inspection company called Drainscan, which at one stage had a dozen employees.
With increased sales of CCTV equipment, the company backed out of contracting in 1994 and returned to their core business of sales.
In 1994, the company expanded their Marrickville warehouse with the purchase of the adjoining property. They continued to build water jetters until the late 2000s, but with the parity of the US dollar, manufacturing became uneconomical and SECA moved on to importing jetting equipment from both the US and Europe.
In 1998, SECA began a long-standing relationship with iPEK Spezial TV. Their success with iPEK in Australia saw them become the second biggest iPEK dealer in the world. In 2000, they began to the sell the WinCan program into Australia, with 14 employees.
Over the next few years, the CCTV range expanded to MiniCam and Quickview and in 2005 SECA became the agent for jet/vac truck manufacturer JHL from Denmark.
By 2009, continued growth saw SECA move to their current 1700m2 warehouse in Chipping Norton.
Today, SECA proudly represents 18 leading overseas suppliers and has warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. With 27 staff, including three second-generation team members, seven CCTV service technicians and a dedicated jet/vac service mechanic, the company continues to source and support the best equipment in the world for sewer and drain cleaning, inspection, testing and rehabilitation equipment.
This partner content is brought to you by SECA. For more information, visit www.seca.com.au.
