“We helped everyone,” Mr Csiszar said.
Before the pandemic Med-Con made two million masks a year and employed 14 people.
Demand skyrocketed as the virus set in, seeing international supply chains falter and Australian governments scramble to secure locally made face masks.
Med-Con was the solution — the only Australian factory capable of producing the desperately needed masks at the time.
The Med-Con factory shifted gears, employing 150 staff during its busiest period.
In what truly resembled a war-time effort, defence personnel were called in to plug the gaps until Med-Con had enough machinery and employees to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Working around the clock, the Med-Con team fulfilled its 60 million mask order from the Federal Government by December 2020.
But Mr Csiszar said the state health departments that relied on Med-Con during a crucial time in 2020 were nowhere to be seen when international trade picked up again.
“We haven't had an order from any of the state health departments now for months,” he said.
“The assumptions we can make are they either have too much stock, which is unlikely, or they've gone back to international suppliers.”
In March 2020 Med-Con commissioned three new mask-making machines from Echuca company Foodmach, providing a much-needed boost for local industry.
Now eight of its 10 machines sit idle most days, and Med-Con struggles to shift stock from the factory floor.
Its team is shrinking rapidly towards pre-pandemic proportions, with just 25 employees retaining a job.
Mr Csiszar said Med-Con was "very fortunate" to have a five-year contract with the Commonwealth Government to continue manufacturing a stockpile of face masks.
He said he did not expect state health departments, which operated on tight budgets, to buy all their face masks from Australian manufacturers — but they needed to play their part.
“They need to be supportive in a way that isn't overly detrimental to them in a cost factor, but will continue to support local manufacturers,” he said.
“If you want us to be in a position to help out in the next pandemic you've got to make sure we're still here.”
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Mr Csiszar said several smaller mask manufacturers had already closed for business and he was grateful to the clients who "stuck by" Med-Con.
“There's been a lot of customers that have stuck by us, Victoria Police and other distributors that supply niche markets,” he said.
But Med-Con was manufacturing "nowhere near" what it should be, according to Mr Csiszar, given "another pandemic is imminent".
State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed, who spoke to Mr Csiszar on Tuesday, July 20, said it was incredibly important that basic mask manufacturing was maintained at Med-Con.
“Here in Shepparton is Med-Con, a company that started in 1989 — it was the only one here when the pandemic commenced,” she said.
“And it was able to, with help, gear up and massively service our country in a time of need.”
Ms Sheed said she would like to see health services and governments “look at having a range of contracts” to safeguard Med-Con’s viability.
“It‘s pretty clear that as soon as all these health facilities and governments were able to go back to their overseas suppliers they did,” she said.
Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum said Med-Con's operation emphasised the importance of having sovereign, Australian-made manufacturing capability, and it was "imperative" manufacturers such as Med-Con were supported.
“This includes through procurement contracts, whether that be at a federal, state or local level,” he said.
“Med-Con created a real sense of national security and a great amount of comfort was given to Australians by the fact that we had this capacity for self-reliance to provide for our own people in a crisis.”
Mr Drum strongly urged private companies "looking offshore for cheap and often inferior products" to support Australian manufacturers.
“The cheapest product is rarely the best and when it comes to health-related products, quality must trump cost, particularly during a pandemic,” he said.
Mr Csiszar's conclusion was simple.
“If Australians want Australian manufacturing they’ve got to support us,” he said.
“You can’t have it both ways.”
