Smart50 rank: 41
Revenue: $3,800,000
Growth: 45.36%
Founders: Andy Park, 46, John Porteus, 46
Head Office: Western Australia
Employees: 19
Industry: Manufacturing
Website: www.bullmotorbodies.com.au
With all the headlines about the decline of Australian manufacturing it can be forgotten that success stories do exist.
Bull Motor Bodies was founded in 1996 by Andy Park and John Porteus and today the company specialises in manufacturing aluminium ute canopies, but it didn’t start out that way.
“We were previously a steel fabrication company, doing mainly one-off fabrications to solve production flow issues for larger manufacturing companies,” says Park.
“We sold our time on an hourly basis, (but) the client’s benefit went on and on.”
Park and Porteus started Bull Motor Bodies as a way to reap those benefits themselves.
Their first product was aluminium boats, which Park says were “too price competetive … the clients required you to build their dream boat, each and every one was different, limiting any efficiency gains in the production process”.
After settling on aluminium ute canopies they developed a range of bodies, trays and toolboxes to allow customers to build mobile workshops.
The past 15 years have brought success and today Bull Motor Bodies employs nearly 20 people, average annual revenue growth during the past three years has been 45.4% and revenue in 2010-11 was $3.8 million.
