By CASEY NEILL
HILTON Manufacturing founder Tom Hartley says his drive for success started with Scouts.
“I joined when I was 11. I came from a pretty poor background in Leeds and my Scout leader was just a terrific guy,” he said.
“He taught me things like ‘good enough is never good enough’ and ‘if you want to achieve something you’ve got to work hard to get there’ and ’don’t be put down by anybody, it’s within you to do these things’.
“He gave me the wherewithal to strive to achieve. That’s where it all started.”
The 77-year-old last week joined the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame Honour Roll, a nod reserved for individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to manufacturing excellence in Victoria.
His Dandenong South company earned Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame induction in 2008.
Its beginnings were in 1976 after Mr Hartley was twice retrenched.
“I thought ‘if I’m going to work this hard and this long, I may as well work for myself’,” he said.
“So I went and asked four mates to put in $1000 each. We started from there in Hilton Street, in a little tin shed.
“I can remember working all night with just a hacksaw cutting through a five-inch bar.
“Then the next day we managed to rake up $120-odd and we bought a power hacksaw and it was just fantastic.”
Hilton started in a small way, welding farm gates and small pressure water tanks.
“We concentrated on doing things for International Harvester, which was just across the road,” Mr Hartley said.
“They used to bring everything out in packs, and if they had any shortages it meant that they couldn’t build that truck.
“So we specialised in quick turnover of small items. We’d work all night if need be, all weekend.
“It slowly grew from there and we started to put more people on.”
Hilton soon outgrew the tin shed, and two more factory spaces – all while surviving two recessions.
About seven years ago the company moved into its Bangholme Road premises.
“The beginning of last year we bought the factory next door. So we do all of our aluminium fabrication over there, all our fuel tanks and bumper bars and exhaust pipes and the like,” he said.
Hilton is the preferred fuel tank supplier to Volvo and Mack, Kenworth, Mercedes, Iveco and Western Star, and exports to truck producers in Korea, Japan, Sweden and Canada.
It’s doubled in size since 2008, employs about 250 people and about four years ago established a factory in Queensland.
Mr Hartley often wonders how Hilton has succeeded where other businesses failed.
“We’ve always worked hard. We work with a passion, we care about people and we’ve got a vision for the future,” he said.
“We’re constantly upgrading our equipment. We don’t have any major piece of equipment here that’s over three years old.
“And this company is like a family to (wife) Margo and I. You do the right thing by your people and that manifests itself.
“People are proud here, they’re proud to talk about working here, and the vibes go to your customers, to your suppliers.”
Mr Hartley said customer service was another key to Hilton’s success.
“If you import parts, you’ve got to pay upfront before you even get them,” he said.
“You might have three months or four months deadline between ordering the parts and getting them, so if anything untoward happens in that four months – either increased business or decreased business – there’s not much you can do.
“We can manufacture just in time.”
Hilton relies only on itself for success – not government support or other businesses.
“We’ve got to make the grade ourselves,” Mr Hartley said.
“Maybe that’s a bit of migrant kid in me.”
He arrived in Australia in 1956 as a third-year apprentice toolmaker.
“I’m a Yorkshireman. We moved into Holmesglen Hostel – my mum and dad and two sisters,” he said.
“I did an engineering cadetship with Repco, and I suppose in a sense that’s where it all started.
“Then my family got a house in Doveton – a housing commission home where we lived until I got married to Margo.
“We then moved into rooms in Springvale and then built a house in Hallam, and from there we went into Endeavour Hills.”
Margo works at Hilton most days and their son Todd is managing director.
“When we moved here we had our opening day and I announced that I’d resigned,” Mr Hartley said.
“One guy said to Todd ‘the only reason you got this job was because your old man owns the company’.
“I’d tried other people coming in as general managers and production managers and none of them were as good as Todd.
“We’re proud of both our sons. Our other son Mark is a film director.
“Both of them are good people and both of them have got a heart for the community and they both work hard.
“We’ve got two terrific grand-daughters as well, now. How good is that?”
Taking a step back was good for Mr Hartley and for Hilton.
“One of the things people always tell you is you should be working on your business, not in your business,” he said.
“You can’t get tied up in day to day affairs. You’ve got to be working for your long-term.”
He’s still at the factory every weekday.
“I just work on projects, but I still do a bit of mentoring and I talk to Todd every day about things. I talk to our senior managers,” he said.
“It gives you a reason for getting up in the morning. I still enjoy coming in, I still enjoy the challenges.
“Growth is a result of doing things well, and I think we’ll continue to do things well and therefore I think that we’ll continue to grow.”
