Fractional COO and CRO leadership for Australian manufacturers and B2B businesses.

I work inside your business, not from the sidelines, building the systems and structure that let you scale without adding overhead.

About Drew Robins

I’m Drew Robins, and I’ve spent 30 years solving operational problems for manufacturing and B2B companies across Australia, the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia.

I embed with manufacturing and B2B companies ($2M-$40M) for 90-day operational transformations that unlock growth capacity without adding staff, reduce founder dependency, and maximise exit value.

I work with businesses in three situations:

Planning to exit in the next 12-24 months and need operational readiness
Hitting capacity constraints and can’t scale without operational transformation
Exploring strategic expansion and need to validate the opportunity

I don’t write reports and leave. I embed with your team for 90 days to actually implement the transformation: building systems, training your people, and ensuring you can sustain improvements after I’m gone.

My commitment: If you still need me 6 months later, I’ve failed. The goal is operational independence, not consultant dependency.

My Background

I’ve spent 30 years solving operational problems for manufacturers and B2B companies across Australia, the UK, and Europe.

I didn’t start as a consultant. I started on the shop floor. My grandfather had me using lathes and mills at five years old, and in my teens, I worked on the Jindara BBQ production line during school holidays. Thirty years later, I’m still happy getting my hands dirty, solving the operational problems that hold manufacturers and B2B businesses back.

My career began in internal sales in the UK, where I quickly moved through account management and team leadership roles. I learned that sustainable growth comes from building robust operational systems, not just making sales.

Over the next three decades, I built deep expertise in operational excellence and quality management, working primarily in construction and manufacturing. I’ve audited factories in the USA, Europe, Asia and Scandinavia, which gave me practical, cross-cultural business insights.

This international background is particularly valuable if you’re a European manufacturer entering Australia or an Australian business expanding internationally. I understand both business cultures intimately and can help you navigate the differences.

I’ve also championed sustainable manufacturing practices as a contributor to the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products in London, presenting at events including the Healthy Buildings Conference and LondonBuild Expo. For me, operational excellence and environmental responsibility go hand-in-hand.

Now based in Currumbin Valley on the Gold Coast, I work with manufacturers and B2B businesses across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and nationally.

What sets my background apart: I’ve actually done the work. I’ve walked factory floors across four continents, managed multi-site operations, built quality systems from scratch, and led teams through major transformations. I’m not a theorist; I’m a practitioner who happens to consult.

Recent Results

Builder: Product Line Launch

Situation: Lead times were holding back growth on a new product line, with delivery timelines inconsistent and unpredictable.
Result: Lead time reduced from 140 days to 11 days, achieved through standardised models and new supplier agreements with built-in contingency. A successful open day marked the project’s launch, and has since opened avenues into government tenders not previously accessible to the business.
Engagement: 12-week Fractional COO.

Construction Contractor: Pre-Due Diligence Audit

Situation: Considering a future sale, with no clear picture of how exposed the business was to buyer scrutiny.
Result: A one-day audit of 70 operational documents found that only 24% were fully compliant and ready for due diligence. Had a formal DD process started that day, the gaps identified would likely have materially affected the value of any offer. Instead, the audit gave the business a prioritised roadmap to fix the gaps before a buyer ever saw them.
Engagement: 1-day pre-DD operational audit.

Bathroom Renovation Business: Operational Diagnostic

Situation: Business built on personal trust and informal processes, with no documented systems or authority framework.
Result: 6 quick wins identified, alongside 12 structural and 8 commercial recommendations. The findings became the foundation for a 12-week Operational Improvement Program, now underway.
Engagement: 3-day diagnostic.

International Building Products Manufacturer: Feasibility Study

Situation: Considering entry into the Australian market with no validated pathway.
Result: $25M Australian market opportunity identified and validated. The 120-page report covered market entry strategy, ideal location, competitive positioning, and regulatory requirements specific to the Australian market.
Engagement: Feasibility study.

Testimonials

We brought Drew in when our on-site residential builds were running at around 20-week build timeframes, the systems and processes behind the business had simply outgrown what we had in place. What followed was a complete reset and rebuild of how we operate. Production SOPs, quality control systems, scheduling tools, a government tender, and ultimately adding a new modular product range that delivers in 11 days from the same team. He then built the entire go to market around it, the open day, the marketing and the sales sequence.

When that was done, we brought him straight back to apply the same thinking to our on-site build process, this time targeting a reduction from 20 weeks to 8. Every phase has produced real deliverables, not reports sitting in a drawer. If you are a builder or manufacturer who needs someone to come in and build the system rather than just tell you what it should look like, Drew is your man and we highly recommend him and his services!

Tayne Watson

Business Owner

As a business broker I only take on listings I am confident I can sell at the right price. Before I commit to a vendor, I need to know what a buyer will find when they get under the hood.
Drew is the person I bring in to do that assessment. He understands business operations at a level that translates directly into what buyers scrutinise during due diligence. He identifies the gaps, quantifies what they mean for value, and in many cases works with the vendor to close them before the business goes to market. That process protects my vendors from price renegotiation and protects my reputation as a broker. I would not put either at risk with someone I did not trust completely. Jim Roddy

Jim Roddy

Business Broker

I had worked with business coaches before who were good at identifying what was wrong but left me to figure out the rest. After two days with Drew, I said to him that it was worth more than months of coaching. The difference is that he comes in, does a proper diagnostic, interviews the team independently, and comes back with a structured report that tells you exactly what needs to happen and in what order.
That report gave me the confidence to move into a much larger piece of work. Since then, we have been building the actual systems the business needs, role descriptions, customer journey maps, staff handbooks, recruitment frameworks. All designed around one goal: reducing the dependence on me so the business can grow without me being the bottleneck.
If you want someone who will work out what needs doing and then stay until it is done, that is Drew.

Andrew Lawson

Business Owner

When you have a stake in a business, you watch outside engagements closely. Drew came into DC House with a clear methodology: interview the team independently, understand the business as it actually runs rather than how it is described, and then build the systems that close the gap.
What he noticed was that nothing sat on paper. Every session produced something real. The org structure, the position descriptions, the subcontractor framework.
For a growing construction business that had outgrown its original structure, that is exactly what we needed.

Aaron Watson

Business Owner

There's a point in growth conversations where marketing isn't the problem. The business can't absorb more leads and demand because the operations and teams behind just aren't built for it. That's when I call Drew.

I've referred clients to him twice now, and stayed close to both engagements to see exactly what happened. He came in, diagnosed what was holding things back, and then built the systems, structures, and frameworks the business needed to move forward and operate with confidence.

Both times, my clients came back to me and were ready to grow. That's why I keep referring to him.

Kristy Hunter

Fractional CMO

I refer clients to Drew because I have seen the work firsthand. On one project I watched him come into a business he had never worked with before, quickly get under the hood, and identify what was possible that the business itself had not seen. Within a short period, he had restructured a production process that delivered an 90% reduction in lead times and created a product the business did not have before.
That required someone who understood the build process, worked practically with the constraints of the site and the team, and kept driving until the product was ready to go to market. That is exactly what he did. For any business owner who needs someone to come in, work out what is possible, and then actually build the solution, Drew is the person I would call.

Aaron Beatie

Architect

Working with trusted partners

I work alongside a network of trusted specialists across accounting, finance, marketing, talent, and business sales, who share the same commitment to practical, no-dependency advice. Where a client’s needs sit outside my core focus, I refer within this network rather than stretching the engagement beyond where I add genuine value. View our referral partners.