Vawdrey Australia Celebrates 50 Years of Innovation and Excellence
Nowadays, the tag icon is used far too frequently, but not so in the case of Vawdrey Australia and its founder, Mick Vawdrey.
Mick was born to a working-class family based near the beach in Black Rock, a south-eastern Melbourne suburb, where he grew up with his family's love of fishing. In fact, even though Mick was originally trained as a plumber, his heart was always at sea, and he retains his professional fishing license to this day. But Mick was always a worker on the move, subsidising his early income by driving tow trucks at night.
Some would say unfortunately, but at the age of 24 Mick was involved in a terrible car crash that left him wheelchair bound as a person with paraplegia. Mick doesn’t see it as unfortunate; it was merely a hurdle that forced a change of direction.
After six months of operations, healing, and physiotherapy, on September 27, 1974, Mick grabbed an opportunity and, with his customary enthusiasm, started Vawdrey Truck Bodies, the prelude to the now giant Vawdrey Australia.
Mick was, and still is hands-on, refusing to let his physical limitations hold back his success. However, it did make him direct more effort into developing the growing business, which, on reflection, was probably the key to the initial success. The other key was, and still is, a total commitment to quality.
One of Mick’s traits is his true commitment to his staff, business partnerships, customers, suppliers, and mates. He’s a tough bloke with a heart of gold that respects and rewards commitment.
Extended Family
“Everyone here has a sense of ownership for the brand and the product, and that is arguably Mick’s greatest achievement,” said Mick’s son, Paul Vawdrey. “For Mick, Vawdrey would be nothing without his people.”
Paul has grown in the business over the years to become Director and Sales Manager. Other Vawdrey team members, including General Manager Alastair Lang, Factory Plant Manager Damian Johnson, and Service Manager Arthur Ozdil, have all been by Mick’s side for over 30 years, constantly growing the icon to its current successes. At 79 years young, Mick still presides over the company but has handed over the day-to-day reigns to Alastair Lang, his son Paul, and dedicated staff.
Vawdreys outgrew their site in Boundary Rd, Mordialloc, Vic, in 2000 and moved to a much larger and more industrially attractive site in Dandenong South. This site has recently been bolstered with the addition of a further property across the road for the construction of a “state-of-the-art facility to become the new service and repair warehouse that will be completely operational by early 2025.”
Service, parts, and repairs have grown to be a significant component of Vawdrey Australia with expansion in sales and service centres across Australia, plus major facilities on the eastern seaboard in Larapinta, Brisbane, Qld and Eastern Creek in Sydney, NSW. The original service centre on the Dandenong South property is to be transformed into a dedicated refrigerated trailer manufacturing facility, reflecting the vast product demand and increasing delivery through their massive output abilities. At premium production, Vawdrey’s has been producing over 200 trailers per month, giving some idea of the size of this proud Aussie manufacturer.
Quality, Design, and Innovation
Mick and the Vawdrey team have been at the forefront of trailer design since its inception. They have always striven to design and produce new general and specialised freight trailers, including custom designs and innovations to make transport safer and more efficient. They always stipulate that the whole business focuses on quality products and services.
They pioneered many widely accepted advancements, such as an automatic mezzanine deck system and the development of an automatic, load-rated buckle-less curtain that dramatically increased efficiency and improved OH&S procedures.
Vawdrey Australia was also a large contributor to expanding the Performance-Based Standards (PBS) scheme beyond the traditional truck-and-dog segment into general and refrigerated freight. They designed a Victorian PBS conforming Super-B double combination that allows the carriage of two 40’ containers at a time and a range of Super-B combinations that enable increased access for Higher Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFV). These innovations increase both productivity and operator safety, gaining terrific consumer confidence.
Other innovations include variations of their famous “Wingliner” with their folding, solid restraint mechanisms for trailer and ridged van operations. They introduced the “buckle-less” curtain system with simple-to-use carbon fibre load restraints, as well as many other technologies, including the Auto Lock mezzanine deck system, all aiding system efficiency.
The Trailers
Their range includes Titeliner, Iceliner, Skeletal, Latchliner, Flat/Drop Deck, Dry Freight FRP vans and trailers, and custom designs on request. Configurations include singles, B-doubles, B-triples, road trains, and A-doubles. They have just built their 50th 34-pallet quad to increase their proud livery.
Vawdrey Australia produces trailers for local and international markets under the well-known and trusted brand for ever-growing transport logistics needs. They are devout Australian-Made manufacturers that utilise as much Australian content, componentry, and raw materials as possible.
Being product leaders in both design and manufacture, employing a solid commitment to service and spares, and continuing close personal relationships with all suppliers, staff, and customers ensures Vawdrey Australia should look forward to a further 50 years of production in the highly demanding, innovative and evolving field of logistics.
Congratulations to Mick Vawdrey and the team at Vawdrey Australia. They have indeed reached “icon” status!
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