Brambles Limited is an Australian company that specialises in the pooling of unit-load equipment, pallets, crates and containers. It is listed on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

History

Brambles traces its history to 1875, when Walter Bramble established a butchery business in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, the operations of which he gradually expanded into transport and logistics. Brambles was listed on the

in 1954, as W E Bramble & Sons Limited and entered the pallet pooling business in 1958 through the purchase of the

Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool CHEP (Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool) is a company dealing in pallet and container pooling services, serving customers in a range of industrial and retail supply chains. It is a subsidiary of Brambles. CHEP offers wooden and plastic pall ...

(CHEP), from the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

. This same year the company changed its name to Brambles Industries Limited and moved its head office from Newcastle to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

.History
Brambles In 1970, Brambles entered the waste disposal market with the purchase of the Australian subsidiary of Purle Brothers Holdings. In 1972, Brambles entered the armoured car market in partnership with

Brink's The Brink's Company is an American private security and protection company headquartered outside Richmond, Virginia. Its core business is Brink's Inc.; its sister brand Brink's Home Security company operates separately and is headquartered in ...

. In 1972, Brambles purchased the

Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company The Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company (PJ&MSC) was a publicly listed company that operated the Manly ferries in Sydney, Australia. After being taken over by Brambles Industries, the ferry service was eventually taken over by the Stat ...

. Brambles main interest in the business, was a 50% shareholding in Tidewater Port Jackson Marine, which operated six

platform supply vessel A platform supply vessel (PSV) is a ship specially designed to supply offshore oil and gas platforms. These ships range from in length and accomplish a variety of tasks. The primary function for most of these vessels is logistic support and tr ...

s. Following a threat by Brambles to withdraw the loss-making Manly ferry service, the

Public Transport Commission The Public Transport Commission (PTC) was an agency of the Government of New South Wales responsible for the provision of rail, bus and ferry services in New South Wales, Australia from October 1972 until June 1980. Upon dissolution, responsi ...

took over the service in December 1974. In 1975, Brambles formed an 80:20 joint venture with UK company Guest Keen & Nettlefold (GKN) to bring CHEP to the United Kingdom. In July 1984, Grace Removals was purchased. In 1988, Brambles became the largest private rail wagon operator in Europe acquiring Groupe CAIB of

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and Procor's United Kingdom business. In 1996, Brambles Transport Services was sold to

Toll Holdings The Toll Group is an Australian-based subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings with operations in transportation, warehousing and logistics in road, rail, sea and air. It has two divisions; Global Forwarding, Global Logistics. History In 1888, A ...

. In June 2000, Brambles sold its Eurotainer container business to

Ermewa SNCF Logistics was the division of the SNCF group responsible for freight transportation and logistics. The division included the activities of: Geodis (and subsidiaries), general land transport and logistics; Fret SNCF the national rail freight ...

and Brinks Brambles armoured car unit to

Chubb Security Chubb Fire & Security Ltd is a British firm specialised in fire protection and security systems, and is a subsidiary of APi Group Corporation (NYSE: APG). History The company was founded by Charles and Jeremiah Chubb, who patented their Chu ...

. In August 2001, the support services activities of GKN (which included interest in CHEP and

Cleanaway {{Infobox company , name = , logo = Cleanaway logo.png , type = , traded_as = {{{ASX, CWY , fate = , successor = , founded = 1979 , founder = Brambles , defunct ...

) were merged into a separate company, Brambles Industries plc (listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

) which then entered became a

dual-listed company A dual-listed company or DLC is a corporate structure in which two corporations function as a single operating business through a legal equalization agreement, but retain separate legal identities and stock exchange listings. Virtually all DLCs ar ...

with Brambles Industries Limited. In December 2001, the Wreckair equipment hire business was sold to

Coates Hire Coates Hire is Australia's largest equipment rental company operating in every Australian state and territory as well as Indonesia. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Seven Group Holdings. As of 2019, Coates Hire has over A$1.7 billion of hire eq ...

. In March 2002, the United Transport and Brambles Project Services businesses were sold to

Patrick Corporation Patrick Corporation is an Australian seaport operator with operations in Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, it is owned by Brookfield Asset Management and Qube Holdings. History P ...

. In October 2002, the railway leasing business was sold to VTG-Lehnkering. In November 2002 the Brambles Shipping business, including the ships '' Tasmanian Achiever'' and '' Victorian Reliance'', was sold to Toll Holdings. In 2006, the company's Australian waste management business, Cleanaway Australia and its Brambles Industrial Services business were sold to

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

.Cleanaway is final Brambles sell-off
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' 1 July 2006 Cleanaway UK was sold to

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. It pr ...

. Following these divestments, Brambles unified its Australian and British-listed entities into a single entity, Brambles Limited, that was listed on the

in November 2006. Brambles maintained a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange until March 2010. In December 2013, the Recall storage business was spun-off.

Operations / acquisitions

*In 2008, Brambles acquired LeanLogistics. * IFCO in April 2011. * Pallecon in January 2013. * BXB Digital in 2016."BXB Digital" https://www.smh.com.au/business/brambles-push-into-big-data-with-bxb-digital-in-chase-for-internet-of-things-20160221-gmzf0x.html

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Business services companies of the United Kingdom Business services companies established in 1875 Companies based in Sydney Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Conglomerate companies of Australia Defunct shipping companies of Australia Security companies of Australia Transport companies of Australia Transport companies established in 1875 1875 establishments in Australia