For many reasons (and depending on who you ask) Australian design’s love affair with local manufacturing has a very on-again, off-again relationship. As a result, the lack of access to skilled local makers has meant that our industry is subject to one (or both) of two options: long-lead times, or foregoing customisation. Dutchman Nicolaas Johannes van Putten arrived in Australia in 1960 with business ambitions and a talent for watchmaking. He turned his hand to jewellery, developing a precision process to create earrings, which he exported worldwide. In the 1990s he diversified into tap making, employing 25 staff. Today, Sussex is in the hands of Putten’s daughter Vanessa in partnership with her husband, managing director George Katsanevakis.

For the new Sussex generation, customisation and the expression of individual tastes are exciting motivators for continued innovation. Yet while they have an eye to the future, they uphold Putten’s legacy of quality and precision. Sussex gives users the opportunity to mix colours and finishes, match paint swatches, and even combine components with different finishes exactly as they please to create a signature range of their very own. Sussex is a true local company, with its own foundry and manufacturing workshop in Melbourne. Here, each piece of tapware is constructed according to rigorous engineering methods from the brand’s own manufacturing facility in Melbourne – exactly how you’d like it, and on time.