Mayne Group was an Australian healthcare and logistics company.

History

Mayne Nickless was founded in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1886 by John Mayne and Enoch Nickless as a parcel delivery service. Within three months it was operating 10 horse drawn vans, by the end of year it had 52. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1926, it expanded to provide freight services to all Australian capital cities and ports. It also branched into armoured car cash deliveries and international logistics.The Armaguard story
ArmaguardMilestones
Loomis In 1975, it entered a joint venture with

Trans Australia Airlines Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Brand ...

to form AAT Coachlines, this was sold in 1983. In 1979 it purchased cash handling company Loomis. In July 1982, Mayne Nickless took a 50% shareholding in

Total West Total West was a transport company in Western Australia. History In 1981, Westrail sough expression of interest to handle small freight traffic. Total West commenced operating on 1 July 1982 as a joint venture between Mayne Nickless and Westra ...

in partnership with

Westrail Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

. In 1985, Mayne Nickless sold its stake in Total West to

Gascoyne Trading Company Gascoyne Trading Company (GTC) was a transport company in Western Australia. It was established in 1924 by Keith Anderson and Charles Kingsford-Smith in Carnarvon. One of its early contracts was the mail run through the Gascoyne to Meekatharr ...

. In 1983, Mayne acquired a 50% shareholding in Ipec. It acquired the other 50% in 1988. In 1992 Mayne Nickless took a 25% shareholding in telecommunications company

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company Singte ...

, this was sold in 2001. After being found to have been part of a

price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

cartel along with Ansett and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

in the early 1990s, it disposed of its remaining transport and security interests with Interlink and Ipec being sold to the

Toll Group 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, Al ...

, Interlink Express to La Poste and Armaguard to

Linfox Linfox is an Australian transport and logistics and supply chain business founded in 1956 by Lindsay Fox. History Linfox was established in 1956 by Lindsay Fox as Lindsay Fox Cartage with one truck in Melbourne. In 1958, a contract with Schwep ...

. In the 1990s, it diversified into healthcare purchasing hospitals and later pathology and diagnostic businesses. In 2001 pharmaceutical company F. H. Faulding & Co was purchased. In 2002, Mayne Nickless changed its name to Mayne Group. In 2000, the container parks and warehousing facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were sold to Lang Corporation. In 2003, Mayne's 53 hospitals were sold to Affinity Health, a consortium of Citigroup, CVC Capital Partners and GIC Private Limited. In November 2005, the company was split into Mayne Pharma and Symbion Health. Mayne Pharma was taken over by

Hospira Hospira was an American global pharmaceutical and medical device company with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois. It had approximately 19,000 employees. Before its acquisition by Pfizer, Hospira was the world's largest producer of generic inj ...

in 2007 and Symbion Health was taken over by Primary Health Care in 2008.Symbion to accept Primary Health offer
''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

'' 12 February 2008

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Melbourne Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Conglomerate companies of Australia Logistics companies of Australia 1886 establishments in Australia 2005 disestablishments in Australia