Oceania Glass - Voluntary Administration

Oceania Glass, Australia’s only specialist architectural glass maker, entered voluntary administration on 4 February.

Based in Dandenong, Melbourne with further distribution centres in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, the historic company was established in the 1850s and has grown to employ over 260 people. The company’s products have been featured in many of Australia’s most iconic buildings, including the Australian Parliament House.

Oceania Glass is now owned by private equity group Crescent Capital Partners, which acquired the company (then Viridian Glass) from CSR (ASX: CSR) for $155 million in 2018. This acquisition included three business units which were then restructured into separate legal entities: Oceania Glass, Viridian processing in Australia and Viridian processing in New Zealand.

Crescent said that Viridian Australia and New Zealand have both successfully been turned around and will each benefit from double glazing regulation and a construction market turnaround. Oceania, on the other hand, has been negatively impacted by cheap imports from China, Indonesia and Thailand, which have created an oversupply in Australia.

Oceania had been hoping the Anti-Dumping Commission would reinstate tariffs which were removed during COVID, but the Commission’s decision on the matter has been deferred, leaving Oceania unable to compete at the current market pricing.

Lisa Gibb, Said Jahani and Matt Byrnes of Grant Thornton were appointed administrators.