Jord Co-founder Phil Blundell says it doesn’t seem like 50 years since his business partner John Holden returned from the Racecourse Sugar Mill in Queensland with Jord’s very first order. “The order comprised a rotary drum vacuum filter for sugar cane mud filtering. We designated the order as J11 because we didn’t want people to realise it was our first order!” said Phil.

“The Order was handwritten by the mill manager, who simply said ‘I need a Jord filter, 14 ft diameter x 24 ft long, $55,000.’ There were no terms and conditions. No delivery date. Everybody just knew the filter had to be there for the start of the sugar crushing season, which was June.”

As soon as this first order was received, Phil and John contacted Peter Olsen, a draftsman with whom they had previously worked. “The filter was drawn up in my bedroom,” said Peter. “John and Phil used to come around to the unit in Kirribilli and see what I was doing. Which was old ink drawings done on counter-weight drawing boards.”

“It was totally different to now, because you would start with a big blank piece of paper. The saying used to be, if you don’t know what you’re doing, put in a centre line and work from there,” said Peter. “We had to cut the drawing sheets from a roll of drawing paper. You then had to have the right ink pens, with the right thickness depending on what type of lines you were doing.”

“Calculations were done on a slide rule. Then we got this wizz bang new innovative technology, the Hewlett Packard HP41 calculator. That sure made life a lot easier.”

Phil said contracts with the sugar industry in Queensland were very good because they wanted to help Jord get going in the industry. “On our very first job, they made sure we got payment ahead of schedule so we could use that money to buy all the components and get things made,” he said. “We didn’t have those financial problems that most people seem to have when they start a business.”

When reflecting on the last 50 years, Phil says a couple of projects stand out.

“One of my favourites was a major contract we got with Santos in Moomba, South Australia for a big gas expansion they were doing in the early 1980s. This was a major job for us, which was air cooled heat exchangers against worldwide competition. That really got us going in the global oil and gas industry” he said.

“The next year we received a very large order for 29 drum filters for an alumina plant in Western Australia. That was a major breakthrough. By world standards, that was a big installation. It cemented Jord on the map as a major supplier of process plant.”

Jord CEO Angus Holden was seven years old when his father started the company with Phil. “I’ve lived and breathed Jord, from since I was in shorts through to now,” said Angus. “A lot of the big brand names in our industry over the last 50 years have come and gone, while we’ve been able to perform through recessions, pandemics, and various other global crises. We’re still here, stronger than ever. That’s something everyone who has contributed to Jord’s success can be proud of.”

In 2022, Jord celebrates 50 years of service. Thank you to all our staff (past and present), customers, vendors and suppliers who have been part of our story.