Vater Hardware History
Determine to continue his innovation from dam netting to damn anything....
Lance Vater, on his 17th birthday opened his doors for business in his humble 30' x30' besser block workshop persoanlly completed over the previous 6 months including hand made glass paneled wooden, framed louver windows, all hand crafted on site.
This freehold workshop Lance funded from 3 months of rabbit trapping, using his innovative dam netting system, catching up to 2000 rabbits per night.
Vater Hardware is the flagship company of Vater Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd, which had its beginnings in South Australia’s mid north in 1960. It was then that our Managing Director, Lance Vater, founded an engineering company called Electroweld Sales Pty Ltd which quickly expanded its base rural engineering focus into rural and industrial construction. By the late 1960’s Electroweld was a major force in the South Australian rural construction industry and had constructed some of the best known wineries and Industrial Sheds across the Mid North and South East wine regions.
During this period Lance realised that one of the most troublesome issues facing industrial building construction was the quality and after sales maintenance of sliding door equipment. Most components had to be sourced from interstate and were frequently defective or below standard. Lance was determined to rectify this and undertook to design and manufacture his own range of high quality, reliable and cost effective sliding door systems.
VATER
Since its foundation in 1960 Vater Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd has grown into one of South Australia’s leading privately owned companies and it now employs more than 120 staff across five states.
Vater Corporation now operates in such diverse areas as Manufacture, Marketing & Distribution, Aquaculture, Property Development, retail and wholesale Plant Nurseries and landscaping.
The ELTRAK and ELGATE brands have become synonymous as a premium quality and value for money product that is recognised and elevated by our peers to market leadership across Australia.
ELGATE
In the mid 1980’s the Eltrak International and Staff under the guidance of Lance established its Elgate range of fence and gate fittings for the rural and industrial sectors.
In a very short space of time, the ELGATE range became the Australian market leader, with enviable results also gained in many overseas markets, particularly New Zealand and South East Asia.
Eltrak was awarded, the 1997 Australian Design Award for Engineering for its Elgate Multi-Purpose Fitting System and has continued to lead the way in design and innovation in this industry.
ELTRAK
After developing a complementary range of bracket and carriage componentry and a new dependable range of sliding door equipment the ELTRAK brand was born.
Less than six months from first production it was apparent to Lance that the potential for his new product was enormous, and he quickly decided to redirect the focus of his operation from building construction to sliding door equipment manufacture and distribution, a move that within only a few short years saw Electroweld become the major source of liding door equipment in Australia.
The distribution company became known as Eltrak International and Staff based in Wingfield South Australia was established.