Our Story
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OUR STORY
Our story of relentless innovation
From a single laminating machine in Waterloo, Sydney, to multiple specialist businesses across three countries. Tapex has changed shape many times since 1957, through acquisitions, divestments and new markets. The businesses it owns today look different from the ones it started with. What has not changed is the logic behind every move.
OUR FOUNDING IDEA
Theo Rossi built Tapex on a simple idea: make what isn't being made yet. That principle has guided every generation since. The portfolio has changed through multiple acquisitions and divestments, but the underlying logic of finding a gap in the market, building the capability, and doing it properly has not shifted in 70 years.
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OUR JOURNEY
Built across three generations.
2023
Elite Tunnels & Redpath
Tapex Group acquires Elite Tunnels Ltd (UK) and Redpath Horticulture Pty Ltd (AU), expanding the group's protected cropping capability across Scotland, the UK and Australia.
2013
Pink campaign
Through Agpac LTD, Tapex launched the Pink Campaign in New Zealand, producing pink silage film to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. Proceeds went to the Sweet Louise Foundation. The campaign raised awareness globally.
2013
Vietnam manufacturing & Boddingtons
Tapex opens a manufacturing facility in Ho Chi Minh City and acquires the industrial business of Boddingtons Australia and the horticultural textile business of Scarecrow.
2012
Synthetic grass used in the Olympic Games
Tapex's manufactured synthetic grass products are used in the hockey surfaces at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
2007
Plasback recycling programme
Tapex establishes the Plasback programme in New Zealand, which becomes the largest and most successful agricultural plastic recycling scheme in the New Zealand agriculture sector.
2002
Kinnears joins the group
Tapex acquires Kinnears, the iconic Australian rope, twine and cordage company, cementing its position as a market leader in industrial twines.
1992
Philip Rossi acquires the company
Philip Rossi takes ownership of Tapex. A new range of biological filters is developed for the treatment of greywater and industrial waste products.
1962
Southern Hemisphere first
Tapex becomes the first company in the Southern Hemisphere to extrude polypropylene, setting the foundation for decades of product innovation.
1957
Tapex is founded by Theo Rossi
Tapex is incorporated in Waterloo, Sydney. Theo Rossi builds a laminating machine to manufacture the world's first synthetic flat strapping.
1881
The Villa–Rossi family enters Australia
Italian immigrants from the Villa and Rossi families begin business in Australia, supplying clothing and goods to rural communities. It was the start of what would become Tapex.
