From a company based on innovation 51 years ago – instant hot water systems – he made a substantial donation in 2013 to the “hottest” thing on a university campus, an innovation hub, to be known as the Crouch Innovation Centre.
Michael Crouch AO, CEO and executive chairman, of Zip Industries, at Condell Park, one of Australia’s largest private manufacturers, sold the company in
December, for about $300 million to Quadrant Private Equity. The Crouch family will retain about a third equity.
Quadrant MD, Chris Hadley, had been courting Zip for about three years as a potential investment.
Mr Crouch’s innovative strategy has paid off handsomely for his family and the innovation centre will become an institution to inspire students.
The centre will be located on the ground floor of the university’s new Materials Science Engineering Building, a $145 million project, which is due for completion by June 2015.
Professor Geoff Garrett, dean of the Australian School of Business, which will run the centre, said, following a tour of leading US universities, that the centre would take the best of all the other centres, and integrate them, so as to “inspire in students a life of innovation; to seek better ways to do things and solve problems.”
Michael Crouch said in a UNSW media release: “Innovation is what will continue to make Australia great; [the] centre will be a world leading environment for students, staff and the community where innovative products and new companies will be developed.
“The centre will make an important contribution to productivity growth and the Australian economy.”
Reflecting on the growth of the company, Mr Crouch said on the company’s website: “A great brainwave of mine was an instant hot water product.”
In a newspaper interview in 2011, Michael Crouch told the interviewer: “… we get such a great kick out of innovating things… we are always thinking what can we do, and how can we do it better”.
Today, Australian designed and Australian made Zip instant boiling water systems of many kinds are used daily around the world by millions of people, in restaurants and canteens, schools, universities, hospitals, clinics, and in fact anywhere tea and coffee are brewed in more than 60 countries.
The innovation of the Zip HydroTap boiling and chilled filtered water systems opened up the residential market.
Another outcome in the pursuit of innovation was the introduction of energy saving sustainability technology that reduces the operating cost of some instant boiling water systems by more than 50 per cent over earlier models.
Yet another, was the introduction of healthier inbuilt water filtration 25 times finer than water filtration of the past, filtering out chemical tastes and odours to providecrystal-clear better-tasting water, boiling or chilled.
One of the first compact Instant boiling water heaters, the Zip MiniBoil, is on permanent display at the Powerhouse Museum.
