Ampcontrol started operations as Hunter Engineering Sales and Service Pty Ltd. At a meeting at Glenbawn Dam in NSW, Neville Sawyer proposed a business partnership to three colleagues - Peter Cockbain, Keith Grant and Tony Studdert. The four men worked for a company that was closing its manufacturing facilities and importing product from the UK. 

Four months later, from an office in Glebe Road, Merewether (pictured) it began distributing industrial electrical products to the Hunter region. The company quickly took advantage of the gap in the local marketplace.