On the 24th of October in 1958 in Cremorne Street Richmond, Richmond Engineering Co Vic P/L (trading as Richmond Wheel & Castor) was established as an Australian company and as such 2008 marks Richmond’s 50th anniversary.
Ferret’s Editor and Key Account Manager were invited to spend a day at Richmond’s Sydney Headquarters in Wetherill Park to help commemorate this historic occasion. The Ferret team received a guided tour of Richmond’s Sydney showroom and warehouse and a crash course on everything Materials Handling.
Richmond’s aim is to widen their range of Materials Handling products to be Australia’s one stop Materials Handling Shop. With product lines manufactured to cover the full range of wheel, castor and engineering applications, available direct to the public from service centres in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland New Zealand, and Modesto California, Richmond are well placed to realise this goal.
Founded by Frank Winslow, the first of three generations of Winslow’s seen at Richmond, the company began predominantly as a manufacturer of steel fabrications for buildings. However after purchasing a Materials Handling Manufacturer in 1961, this business began to manufacture Hydraulic Lifting equipment. This change was based on Frank’s belief that he could develop these products into an extremely profitable business enterprise, he was correct. From this decision came the beginning of a transformation for Richmond Wheel and Castors, from a steel fabricator into a symbol of Australian Materials Handling.
In 1963, the Current Headquarters site in Clayton was purchased. Over the next 10 year period the Steel and Engineering businesses grew, with the chief feature being the growth of the Wheel and Castor component of the Business.
In 1972, the current CEO, Ray Winslow joined the business and focused on building up manufacturing capacity and product development.
By 1982, Wheels and Castors had become extremely successful and was the primary focus.
In 1987, Frank Winslow retired and during that year the whole of the Clayton site was taken over by the Wheel and Castor Business, which was now known as Richmond Wheel and Castors Co.
1997, Marked the beginning of Richmond’s expansion into the Australian market at such time the Sydney Branch was established with Warehousing and Sales facilities. This experience led us to believe that Branches needed to offer a much broader level of products than Wheels and Castors and that the vision was to be Australia’s best "LiftnMove Store".
Since its early beginnings Richmond quickly became recognized for its strength in the market due to the depth and quality of their product ranges and flexibility and skill in solving special Materials Handling needs from design to manufacture. Richmond has thrived due to their commitment to customers, the capacity to meet a wide variety of industry needs and the ability to continually evolve their products to suit changing market needs and demands.
Whilst Richmond continues to build upon its skills in specialised manufacturing market niches, the focus of improving and developing every facet of their business operations has led them to open branches in every Australian state as well as a branch in Auckland, New Zealand so as to expand their reach in the global manufacturing industry.
"Looking to the future as we move from celebrating our history of the past 50 years, as a forward thinking and active organisation Richmond will continue to look to the future for opportunities and build upon our strengths as a global manufacturing company in perpetual change," says Richmond CEO Ray Winslow.
"It has been this ability to remain innovative and dynamic throughout the past 50 years that has been the key to Richmond’s success: constantly developing new machines and new manufacturing methods, at the core of Richmond will always be its ability to design and provide products that offer effective solutions to clients across a range of indutries, from mines to hospitals, to the Royal Australian Navy."
Australian owned and operated for 50 years today, Ferret congratulates Richmond Castors on achieving this historic milestone; one of Australia’s Materials Handling Industry’s great success stories. Image Caption: NSW Branch Manager Mark Rochford, and NSW Operations Manager Ros Thorn, at Richmond Castors NSW Branch..