:: Berryessa the company, and Repel its child

Berryessa Pty Ltd is a family company which grew out of Richard Maerschel’s chemical consulting business in the 1990s. Richard had a wide research experience as a biochemist, then as an industrial chemist in both New South Wales and South Australia. In 1996 Richard was employed by Adchem Industries Pty Ltd, an outer Sydney chemical manufacturer who gave him carte-blanche to design any new chemical products which his employer could patent and manufacture. This was designed to give the company more independence from its main customers who held all the trump cards by owning all the relevant intellectual property. Shortly after Richard took up this challenge an unexpected opportunity arose out of which the Repel product range grew – See The Repel Story.

Progress was very encouraging and exciting until the entire business – both Adchem Industries and Berryessa’s laboratory equipment and library – was destroyed by a deliberately lit, $6m fire in 2002. Decades of irreplaceable research notes, books and records of all kinds were lost. There was no money to match government grants – an Australian Technology Showcase Award, plus federal grants totalling over $70,000 which was to market Repel, so that hard won opportunity was entirely lost. Repel survived only because a small number of customers had gained immense value from the product and demanded that they be supplied. Adchem was liquidated, Berryessa acquired the patent, but had little capital to survive and none to expand.

Richard’s wife Lesley has good business acumen which gave Berryessa enough confidence to enter a partnership, based in Lithgow, to manufacture and market Repel. Berryessa hoped to gain cashflow from sales of specialized cleaning agents which Richard had designed years earlier.  After three years, Richard and Lesley pulled out of that venture because it was going too slowly – not enough capital, and a lopsided partnership. Berryessa took back its licence to manufacture Repel, stopped the production and marketing of cleaning agents to focus on Repel, and moved the business to better premises in Little Hartley. Then, quality control improved markedly and, at last, Berryessa started to grow.

In 2008 Berryessa moved to Adelaide from where it services its main customers in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. In the past year Richard has developed a new range of Repel products for which he has gained a provisional patent to add to the company’s intellectual property. Now, Berryessa can confidently offer products that serve nearly the whole range of concrete mould release applications.

Richard and Lesley have always had the vision that Repel has a strong future throughout the world, but first they are growing the Australian customer base. Berryessa aims to gain a substantial proportion of the whole Australian market, then put all of that credibility and much of those profits into marketing worldwide. No doubt, making Repel will expand offshore, but a small but vital component of each Repel product will always be made here to maintain product excellence and ultimate control  - a bit like Coca Cola, really.