SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
Winner: Norden Body Works
Sponsor: Hilton Manufacturing
Finalists: Polish Rye Crust Bakery, Future Metals Recycling, Objective 3D
FIVE generations of the Anson family have worked at Norden Body Works.
Ron Anson and Dennis Lantsbury founded the company in 1959 to build commercial transport and truck bodies.
They started out in Tharle Street, Dandenong, and have been in Norden’s Bennet Street location since 1967.
Ron’s father Walter bought Dennis’s share of the business in 1961 and joined him at the helm until he died in 1979.
Ron said market gardeners with small trucks were his main clients to start with, then “building an odd semi-trailer or two”.
A presentation about his job at a Dandenong Rotary meeting 30 years ago secured the company’s current main income source.
The Dandenong Hospital CEO approached him after the meeting and asked him to fit out a disability van.
“I didn’t know what he was talking about. I said yes anyway,” he said.
Ron’s daughter Wendy worked in administration for 30 years and his son Robert now runs the business after coming on board about 35 years ago.
Two of Robert’s five sons now also work there. Aaron, 25, is studying a bachelor of business and working on the workshop floor and Ryan, 20, is a contract manager.
“It makes you feel very proud, actually,” Ron said.
“Fifty-odd years ago I never dreamt that this would all happen.
“Fifty-odd years ago it was a matter of getting enough work to open the doors each day.”
Ron retired about 15 years ago at age 70.
He’s now 85 but still visits twice a week to keep an eye on the business he built – and dedicated 56 years of his life to.
“The boys are all developing new ideas. It keeps improving,” he said.
“It’s a battle. Running a small business is very, very hard.
“We’ve had some tough years.”
During the late ‘80s staff worked a four-day week to keep everyone in a job.
“There’s been many times when it got to 12 o’clock Friday and I’d think ‘hmm we need some work for next week’,” Ron said.
“We didn’t have anything.
“Then somebody walks in the door and orders and tipping body at half past two, saves the bacon.”
Over its 50 years the company has employed close to 300 staff plus work experience students, and has 41 staff today.
Laurie ‘Macca’ McCoy is proudly among them. He started his apprenticeship with the company at age 15.
He’s still there 40 years later and couldn’t be happier.
“I’m production manager here now and I have been for 20 years. I love hands-on and I still get hands-on,” he said.
Macca applied for a job at Norden on advice from a friend who was working there. He met with Ron and Walter.
“In those days you brought your parents with you and had an interview,” he said.
“I was lucky enough to get the job.”
Many of his colleagues have worked alongside him for more than 20 years. Macca’s son Kane, 20, has worked on the factory floor for just over a year.
“As long as you can smile and have a laugh and you’ve got good people you work with, I think it’s a big part of it,” he said.
“You spend more time at your job than you do at home with your family, over your working life.”
Macca said many people who encountered hard times threw their hands up in the air.
“Ron hasn’t done that,” he said.
Norden Body Works was a nominee for the CSR and Employment, Manufacturing, Small Business and Premier Regional Business awards.
It was a finalist in the CSR and Employment, Manufacturing and Premier Regional Business categories.
