A broken promise was the catalyst that led to Brian and wife Marilyn Baxter building a family orientated auto electrical empire with a staff that has included a son in law, two daughters and a niece.

It’s been an amazing journey for the soft spoken, 69-year-old auto electrician with the cheeky grin, who was born “somewhere near Swan Hill” and grew up in Hawthorn, a punt kick away from the famous Glenferrie Oval.

Brian is thankful for his general good health. In 2009, he was bitten by midges and developed cellulitis in one leg. The infection was serious enough for doctors to be talking about amputation, and Brian said he almost died.

“I was lucky enough to beat it (Cellulitis), but it keeps reoccurring,” he said.

With the good and bad news out of the way, Brian settled back to talk about Baxters Auto Electrical, its origins and how the company grew.

“I started with Thorne & Dean in Hawthorn as the battery boy,” he said. “In 1975-76 I went to school to become an auto electrician and ended up running the auto electrical shop.

“Then Brian Cumi, president of the VACC for many years, bought the company. I didn’t have the dollars to buy it, but Brian was a friend of mine from Eildon.

“After the purchase, Brian (Cumi) moved the business to Kew (next to Kew Chrysler), and then opened a branch in Bayswater, in the Ramsey Fibreglass building, and I ended up assisting to run the fibreglass division while running the auto electrical division.”

Brian left in 1977, and with his wife, Marilyn, started their own auto electrical business. Trading as Baxters Auto Electrical, the fledgling company secured service contracts with major transport groups and bus operators across Melbourne.

“I’d had a large confrontation with Brian (Cumi),” he explained. “He promised me a shareholding in the business, but didn’t deliver, so I left and did my own scene.

“My leaving pissed Brian off a little as I took a few customers with me. Things got a bit nasty, but after a while it blew over and we were good friends until the day he died.” 

Brian and Marilyn started out doing car and trucks repairs: “I went after a few major clients,” Brian said. “I had Marchetti Transport, Finemores Transport, Bunker Freight Lines, Deluxe Coachlines Australia (Australia’s largest bus operator at the time – more than 200 coaches).

“My biggest customer was Carlton and United Breweries Ltd. In 1979, the brewery had about 180 delivery vehicles ranging from six tonnes to 50 tonnes, and did all their own barrel deliveries from Bedford trucks with Detroit engines.”

There is a story doing the rounds that Brian was responsible for keeping Melbourne's beer flowing due to the unreliability of the CUB fleet.

“That story is wrong,” Brian said. “The CUB fleet was reliable; it was just that the trucks had a few alternator problems, and we kept them going with product.”

As an afterthought, in his understated way, Brian added: “If you wanted to stretch the story a little, I suppose you could say we kept the beer flowing by keeping the trucks on the road.”

By 1980 the business had developed into importing starters and alternators for use on trucks and buses. Contracts were secured with Kenworth, Mack and OE bus manufacturers for the supply of these products for new vehicles being manufactured in Australia.

In August 1981, Baxters purchased the premises they were operating from in Victoria Road, Hawthorn. It was a small factory with a shelter opposite the Geebung Polo Club.

“We started there with one factory and ended up with three factories: In the end, we bought them all,” Brian said.

About this time, Brian’s association with CUB led to getting business from Detroit. He secured a contract with International to rewire Atkinson trucks, which were predominantly owned and operated by Bunker Freight Lines who had a fleet of about 150 trucks.

“Atkinson had a lot of wiring problems, so we were doing the refurbishing of all that,” Brian said.

Then Brian expanded to heavy duty buses. Business continued to grow as Brian Baxter developed a network of agents across Australia who could provide repair service and warranty for the ever-increasing number of transport companies who had become clients of Baxters.

The warehouse premises in Hawthorn was purchased in December 1983, next door to the service business. The original business of auto electrical repairs continued to operate successfully alongside the expanded warehouse operations.

Kenworth had developed into a major part of the Baxter wholesale business and in 1988 land was purchased at Boronia and a modern warehouse and office complex constructed.  The new warehouse was close to the Kenworth facility at Bayswater where JIT deliveries were now required.

“Back in the early 1990s there was a bloke in Wangaratta who started up Deluxe Coachlines to go up against Greyhound,” Brian said. “He ended up going broke and got me for $60 or $70,000. I can’t remember the exact amount, but it almost tipped us over at the time … we almost went down.

“That bloke had 200 express buses and we had their business through Detroit because they were Denning buses with Detroit engines.

“Then we started doing a bit of work for Denning. Basically, we started to break away from the car industry and were doing heavy duty.”

The service and repair business remained at Hawthorn and was subsequently sold in 1993 to the manager and his assistant.

A major change started through Boustead Trading, which had the Leece Neville alternator agency. Brian’s company was charged with fitting these alternators.

“About 1989, Boustead Trading took me overseas and I visited a couple of the factories in America. That company (Boustead) ended up turning up their heels due to a major trauma within the company.

“They were a trading company in South Melbourne. I approached Leece Neville to become their distributor and ended up taking over the Leece Neville agency, and built it up through the years. As well, we had the sole business of Kenworth and Mack trucks in Brisbane.”

In the 1980s, Baxters Electrical started acquiring agencies. Leece Neville was tied in with Motorola, and they had Motorola parts, which was part of Valeo, a French-based multinational automotive supplier. Valeo means “I am well” in Latin, and Baxters was the sole distributor for Valeo for many years, and still a Valeo distributor to this day.

Brian said Valeo was one of the largest companies involved in the European passenger car and truck market and described the Valeo business as “humongous.”

Getting hold of the agency wasn’t easy, but Brian is persistent, and spent a week in Paris waiting for an interview, which resulted in winning the franchise.

“Bapcor should capitalise on the Valeo franchise as they are a major OE manufacturer of braking, air conditioning, windshield wiper motors, door actuators; you name it and they’ve got it in electrical, and they supply to Citroen, Renault, Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz.”

Shortly afterwards, Brian vigorously pursued the Delco Remy agency after he got wind that Mike Stohler, Delco’s International Export Sales Manager, was coming to Australia with his bosses from GM and was looking to appoint a new sales and service distributor for our region.   The interview went well, Brian was asked to visit Detroit for a meeting, and the rest is history.  Mike Stohler remains one of Brian’s personal friends to this day.

In the 1980s and 1990s, to grow his business, Brian took the road, driving thousands of kilometres along the east coast and into Outback areas in Queensland and New South Wales.

“This was before we established interstate branches,” he explained. “We didn’t have representation in all areas, and I was trying to set up a service network for Kenworths and Macs. We would fly the stock north, then I’d fly up and hire a car, usually a Holden, load it up and go for a drive.”

Brian covered north Queensland, places like Townsville, where Mac trucks were popular, and southern Queensland and NSW where Kenworth was more in vogue. “I drove to places like Wakool, Mildura, Broken Hill and so on,” he said. “Most times I would be carrying alternators, starters and regulators. Any spare parts we thought we could sell, like bearings, we would package up and I would take them on the road.”

By 1992 the business started to grow away from being service-orientated to parts-supply: “We saw the light: there was more money and less hassles selling parts, so we started opening branches around Australia,” Brian said.

“We still kept our original customers, such as the brewery, Marchetti, Finemores and the Bunker Family, who were based in South Australia and used to cart all the wine around Australia, and then went into general freight and petrol. There were about 300 trucks between the three families and we were doing it all. It was good for us; they were good times.”

Brian became a regular visitor to U.S. auto electrical trade shows, which specialised in the heavy-duty products such as starters, alternators and switches.

Meanwhile, business grew rapidly during the 1990s. In 2004 land was acquired at Knoxfield where a 2,500-square metre warehouse and 600 square metre office complex was completed in August 2004.   These premises are now Baxters corporate head office.

Baxters developed close associations with major manufacturers of heavy duty automotive electrical products, especially with U.S. origin, and became their representatives in Australasia. 

Associations and then representation was then developed with European and British manufactures and suppliers.  To properly represent all the people in Australia, Baxters commenced a program of national representation with Australia by opening branches in all States and key industrial areas.

In 1993, a new warehouse and office complex was purchased at Silverwater, Sydney. A mezzanine floor was added to the warehouse in 1997 and the office refurbished and extended into 2 levels in 2000.

Baxters opened a branch in Newcastle during 2005.

With the move of warehousing to Boronia in 1988, sales in the Melbourne metropolitan area suffered due to an inability to meet courier deadlines for freight deliveries from outer eastern Melbourne to the northern and western suburbs. In 1997, new warehouse and office premises were purchased in North Melbourne, establishing a second outlet in Melbourne.  Sales results for Melbourne metropolitan area improved significantly.

In 1993, Baxters acquired a major share of the business Autolec Wholesale Pty Ltd in Wodonga. A formal branch was established in 2000 from rented premises in Wodonga and land was purchased in 2001.  A modern warehouse and office complex was built and the branch relocated to owned premises in November 2004 which serviced the Albury-Wodonga area, Canberra, New South Wales south coast, Shepparton and the Riverina. Sales staff operated from Wodonga with stock being shipped directly to customers from Melbourne of Sydney.

In 1996, with strong connections in the mining industry and supply difficulties due to distance, Baxters opened a branch in Perth. In 1998, a warehouse and office complex was purchased at Belmont. 

In 1987, a partnership was formed with an associate in Brisbane. The partnership represented Baxters’ products throughout Queensland until dissolution in 1990. Baxters handled sales in Queensland through Sydney and Melbourne until 1994 when a branch was established. In 1998, land was purchased and a warehouse complex was built. The branch services all of Queensland and the northern regions of New South Wales.

Baxters’ representation in Adelaide commenced in 1995 with a sales representative working from home and goods shipped directly from Melbourne. In 1997, premises were rented in Regency Park and larger premises were purchased in 2003 and refurbished in 2004.

Representation in Far North Queensland was undertaken by the Brisbane office.

Recognising the potential for increased sales, especially in the mining industry in the areas west of Townsville, a full-time sales representative was placed in Townsville in 2001 and a branch opened in rented premises in 2003. This branch covers all areas north of Rockhampton and west to the Northern Territory border, an area which embraces a significant amount of mining activity.

In 2004, Lucas ceased manufacturing their battery switch, commonly known as “The Big Red”.  This switch had a manual reset handle, but with a pulse activated turn off.   This left a huge gap in the marketplace.  Amid the growth, Brian somehow found time to develop a double pole, fully electronic, self-testing, battery isolation switch that is now used extensively in mining and on most petrol tankers in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and, more recently, South Africa and the United States.  The new DPS switch catered for most needs, however the mining industry still preferred a semi-automatic switch with a handle. This led to the development of the TSW switch and Baxters now offer both options.

In 2007/2008 Brian further added value to his businesses by developing a lighting division called Roadvision, which he said was going “gangbusters.”  In 2011, Roadvision commenced distribution of Peterson products after gaining sole distribution rights for our marketplace.  These products are used by the Australian Military on their Bushmaster vehicles as well as line haul trucking.   In 2012/2013, Baxters developed an LED headlight system to suit the new Hawkeye vehicle for the Australian Army, who have started building 1300 Hawkeye vehicles.

In 2014, Roadvision acquired Brytec, a company who specialised in the light duty trailer and caravan market, something that complimented Baxters heavy duty range.  In 2017, the Roadvision business was merged with Baxters where the Roadvision brand name continues.

Brian doesn’t discriminate in business, and he even supplies Broome Diving, a pearl business in Western Australia. However, despite the rapid expansion, business wasn’t easy.

“We were forever fighting against Ashdowns (Ashdown-Ingram), which is owned by Repco, Brian explained. “Everywhere we went they would open accounts. That was one of the reasons I decided to sell out because we couldn’t compete against them.

“As soon as we developed a product, they would ask for it and butcher it. Just drop the price. They were picking their profitability up on stuff we didn’t have.”

Interviewed March 2017