An accountability-first approach supports critical infrastructure. Brett Jennings and Leon Stefanec discuss Motion’s strategic direction as the company moves into 2026, and how in water and wastewater they prioritise long-life solutions, local engineering and value-for-money for publicly funded assets.
Motion connects parts, people and problem-solving under one roof so Australian industry keeps moving. In 2025, the name stands for one thing above all: confidence – the assurance that when assets matter most, help is close, capable and accountable.
“Customers don’t just want a catalogue of available parts and services; they want outcomes,” Jennings, Motion’s executive general manager, product management and marketing, said.
“What sets Motion apart is the combination of local specialists, national reach and the ability to join the dots between components, engineering and on-site service. That’s how we improve performance and deliver for our customers.”
Moving from name recognition to genuine understanding is the next step for Motion.
“Plenty of people know the name; fewer know the breadth,” Jennings said. “Bridging that gap is about telling the whole story – industrial solutions, fluid power solutions, engineering and services – and showing how those pieces work together on real jobs.”
Asked about misconceptions, Jennings doesn’t hesitate.
“The most common is that Motion is ‘a parts supplier’,” he said. “Supplying critical parts is foundational – and we’re very good at it – but customers stay because we solve problems. We design, we install, we commission, and we stand behind the result.”
His favourite proof point is a behind-the-scenes save.
“A customer faced a line-stopping failure ahead of peak demand,” Jennings said. “Our local team stabilised the plant overnight with replacement drives and belting, while engineering modelled a longer-term upgrade. The site hit its target, and weeks later we delivered the permanent fix without a single unplanned stop. That’s Motion at its best: immediate action with a plan for tomorrow.”
For industry, the value is straightforward: fewer breakdowns, safer operations and better use of capital.
With access to an extensive range of stocked components, field crews who know the conditions, and engineers who can lift performance, Motion meets urgency without losing sight of the system. The result is uptime that lasts.
The Motion philosophy is underpinned by a holistic understanding of an operation’s lifecycle: stabilise, optimise, then future-proof. That might mean moving from reactive change-outs to planned reliability programs, upgrading drives and hydraulics for efficiency, or engineering safeguards that reduce exposure at pinch points.
Compliance is designed in, not bolted on; and the same ethos applies whether Motion is supporting a single machine or a multi-site fleet.
Scale matters too. With a national footprint of over 100 branches and a workforce of 1400 staff, expertise is local while inventory is shared nationally.
Digital tools – from condition monitoring to traceable service records – shorten diagnosis and keep decisions grounded in data. Training rounds it out: Motion equips skilled staff to conduct training at customer sites to maintain equipment, while constantly upskilling their own team with the latest knowledge and expertise through far-sighted internal education and training programs.
Built to last in water and wastewater
Water authorities and their contractors work under a different kind of pressure: essential services, public money and assets that must run safely for years.
“These customers aren’t chasing the cheapest option – they need robust, high-quality items that deliver value over a long life,” Stefanec, Motion’s national business development manager, said.
“When we select or design a solution, longevity is the starting point.”
That principle drove a recent improvement at one of Melbourne’s largest wastewater treatment facilities. Motion’s engineers worked with a power transmission supplier to extend the life of roller chains and sprockets in primary sedimentation tanks.
“We altered the sprocket design and applied an additional treatment to the chain,” Stefanec said. “Average life went from five years to seven – a simple change that saves hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asset’s lifecycle.”
Local service and engineering make those gains repeatable across sites.
“We bring the full Motion package – products, fluid power and engineering – so fixes are durable and documented,” Stefanec said. “When a water utility asked us how to stretch asset life and standardise spares, we delivered a plan that did both.”
The market response has followed.
“After we presented our fluid power range to a major Victorian water utility, enquiries and orders surged – Motion has risen to the front of the pack in this space because we can bundle quality components with on-the-ground support,” Stefanec said.
For operators, the payoff is predictable uptime, and safer maintenance: better materials, improved alignment and guarding, and traceable service records that stand up to scrutiny.
With Motion’s national network behind local teams, breakdowns turn into short, controlled interventions – and incremental upgrades compound into long-term reliability across the network.
Improving service, every day, every week, every year
Jennings is keen to underscore that Motion never rests on its laurels. Having achieved so much as a company in a few short years, they continually keep their eye on what’s coming over the horizon – for themselves and, more importantly, for the industries they serve.
“Looking ahead five years, we’re doubling down on what customers value most: people who show up, parts that are there, and engineering that lifts performance,” he said.
“Each sector we serve faces its own pressures – from quarry dust and downtime to food safety and automation – and our job is to meet those challenges with solutions that fit.
“We’re expanding our network, digitising service records and condition monitoring data, and standardising solutions so gains replicate site to site. That combination – local specialists with national scale – is Motion’s distinctive advantage. It’s how we’ll deliver more uptime, cleaner operations and safer work, every time.”
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