Weldpoly

Starting below zero

Weldpoly makes HDPE pipe welding equipment. Field welders, workshop gear, spare parts, servicing. It’s not sexy. In fact, their most popular machines are butt welders. Sooooo… yeah. It’s not easy to market, but hot damn if I didn’t nail it.

The business was created after Worldpoly, one of the world’s leading suppliers of this equipment, went into liquidation.

This wasn’t a business with lacklustre marketing. It was a business with no marketing at all, carrying a name people did recognise, but for the wrong reasons. Every conversation started with someone working out whether Weldpoly was the mob that went under or not.

So really, it was worse than a blank page. A blank page doesn’t have a reputation.

Machine owners left high and dry

There were Worldpoly machines in the field in over a hundred countries. Real businesses, mining and civil and water, with gear they’d spent serious money on and no one left to ring.

No spare parts. No servicing. No answers.

On paper that’s a “them” problem. In practice it was the whole marketing strategy behind making Weldpoly the success it is today, because those owners were the most motivated audience in the world and nobody was talking to them.

What was built

Starting from scratch is both exciting and nerve-wracking, because you’re not just fixing up existing work. You’re creating the foundations the entire business will live on. I built the lot:

• The website
• A CRM built properly from day one, so nothing fell through
• Paid ads across Australia, North America and New Zealand
• Press and announcements to get the new name in front of the industry
• The plumbing behind it, so quotes, invoices and follow-ups actually connect instead of living in someone’s inbox

I didn’t just whip up a campaign and invoice for it. I built a business that could be found, could quote, and could service its clients across the world.

What changed

Zero to a six-figure month inside the first year.

The one I’m proudest of isn’t a number anyway. Worldpoly machine owners who’d been stranded got their gear running again, with parts and someone on the end of the phone. That turned a liability into the best lead source the business had.

Full disclosure

I’m the Managing Director of Weldpoly, so this case study is close to home.

I’ve put it here because it’s the clearest example of what I actually do, which is build the whole thing and then run it.