A Brisbane company which started off making shade umbrellas is about to start work on yet another multi-million dollar stadium project overseas.

In December last year, MakMax Australia announced its win of a $23 million contract to work on the 50,000 seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. And now MakMax Australia has confirmed its involvement in the $100 million update of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Mumbai.

The New Delhi Stadium will seat approximately 70,000 track and field spectators for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The stadium will also hold the opening and closing ceremonies of the games.

This project will be a new landmark for MakMax Australia’s international success. Locally, the Gabba in Brisbane, Ayres Rock Resort and Adelaide Oval are just a few well known Australian icons that have been kept cool by MakMax Australia.

MakMax Australia’s managing director Gary Turner said the company is highly regarded for its ability to take each project from conceptual design and translate those ideas into real structures.

“In addition to our manufacturing staff, MakMax has in-house engineers, project managers and drafts people which allows us to offer an integrated solution for our clients. It also means we have a higher level of flexibility and responsiveness which many clients need,” Gary said.

“We often work with architects and potential clients at the feasibility stage and collaborate on conceptual design,” said Gary.

The announcement of the New Delhi Stadium contract coincides with some significant new advances in the company’s technology.

MakMax has recently introduced a new environmentally friendly membrane material, Kenaf. Kenaf is an annual herb which absorbs harmful carbon dioxide better than any other plant or tree. Also, Kenaf membrane does not contain any PVC and does not cause toxic substances when burnt, but instead can be used to make recycled paper.

“At MakMax Australia we are striving to overcome many of the environmental problems we experience today: global warming, waste and recycling, and chemical substances disruptors. We are attempting to solve these problems step by step through membrane. This is why we are so proud of our newest development, Kenaf,” Alicia Launer, marketing manager.