Tricor is a manufacturing and engineering company based in Boronia in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. It seems like a strange fit with Bapcor, until you realise there is a cooperation between Tricor and another Bapcor company, Precision Automotive. Bapcor purchased Tricor in July, 2017; sixteen months earlier, February 2016, it acquired Brisbane-based Precision Automotive.

Precision Automotive imports and distributes workshop equipment; Tricor does fit-outs and fabrication. Precision carries a full range of car workshop equipment in terms of items that aren’t traditionally fixed workshop equipment. The company imports and sells world renown brands of equipment including Rotary Vehicle Lifts, CEMB Wheel Service Equipment, Guiliano Tyre Equipment and a complete range of sundryworkshop equipment.

For its part, Tricor designs workshop layouts, installs, supplies and commissions oil lines, air lines, vehicle hoists, dispensing and waste oil equipment to dealers in the automotive and transport markets. There is an obvious synergy between the two companies.

Tricor was established in 1994 by Ian Blackhurst, who answers to “Blackie”, and Michael (Mick) Young. Both men are 56 years-old. Blackie hails from Liverpool in England and did an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner; Mick is a boilermaker with pressure vessel welding certificates. Blackie said the two men had known each other since 1989, and had worked in partnership in the business since 1993.

The business started out in a small factory in Bayswater, and as it grew Tricor expanded into the factory next door. In 1999 they started constructing their present factory at Isa Way, Boronia.

Neither Blackie or Mick stand ceremony. Asked why they started out in business, Mick said: “We got sick of working for a boss.”

Asked what their titles were in the company structure, Blackie said: “We are listed as managers, but class ourselves as workers.”

When it came to how they began, Blackie was more forthcoming: “We started off in the aviation industry, and we did a lot of pressure vessels before moving into fabrication and setting up garage workshops.”

The pair got a major lift by chance: “I had a mate who was a manager for Castrol supplying oil to aviation companies,” Blackie said.

“He knew we had both gone out on our own doing pipe work and stuff, and he overheard the guys at Castrol complaining about the quality of the pipework, and the leaks appearing in their equipment. So he said to them: ‘Why don’t you contact these guys and see how they go?’

“Well, that got us started, and Mick and I have been in business together ever since.”

Both men agree that the early days of starting out in business involved long hours and long days. The bigger they grew the harder business became in terms of workload.

After becoming established in aircraft refuelling equipment manufacture, Tricor Engineering expanded into fabrication and manufacturing a range of high quality oil tanks, workshop benches and waste oil storage and handling equipment.

“We got sub-contracting work; pressure vessels and stuff like that,” Blackie said. “There was plenty of work around. We did work for Ford, TPG, Rheem, Dulux and Qantas. Just fabricating stuff.”

Tricor’s growth wasn’t pushed by promotion or advertising, and Mick said the business grew through word of mouth: “We depended on people talking to other people; on the quality of our work, and ensuring our customers were getting exactly what they wanted.”

In 2007, Tricor won the first of four prestigious BP Awards for Service Excellence. There are always peaks and troughs in business and while the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 had an effect on the company, it was not as dramatic as it could have been.  

Blackie was overseas when the GFC hit: “I was in Europe at the time and it was all over the news in Europe, and it was just doom and gloom,” he said. When he returned to Australia in September he learned that all of the jobs that had been organised had been put on hold. Companies were unsure of how the GFC was going to affect them, or how long the financial insecurity would last.

“Companies basically put jobs on hold for a year and we dropped our staffing down to two or three blokes in the workshop, so it didn’t hurt us financially. And then business picked up again after six months.”

As the company grew, so too did it’s cash flow. In 2009, Blackie and Mick decided to invest in people and products and went into importing and selling a range of equipment described as: “A comprehensive suite of products that encompass the full range of workshop parts. From grease guns to valves, hose reels and pumps, Tricor have introduced hundreds of part numbers that are all very competitive in price and performance. The range includes proven European and American brands as well as in-house design.”

The venture lasted for about five years. Neither Mick or Blackie was enthusiastic about their early venture into product sales. “We went in with no experience,” Mick said.

Blackie said the sales period wasn’t that bad at the time. “We were getting containers coming in with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product, and then another container would arrive with more product.

“We were paying it alright, but any money we were making was going to pay for the imports because sales weren’t pulling their weight.

“It wasn’t until after we had shut it down that we realised we were paying people with good money, and all they wanted to do was rip us off and we then wondered why we did (sales) that.

“After that we decided to buy local equipment,” Blackie said.

Tricor went back to its core fabrication and installation business, while it expanded into providing lubrication solutions in the automotive, industrial and agricultural markets.

Tricor fit out between 50 and 70 workshops a year, most are Victorian-based, and fees range from about $10,000 to $300,000. The company do as much of the construction as possible in house to make sure that finishing touches, like welding, are state-of-the-art. Everything from piping to benches, trolleys, gantries and tanks are included in the job description.

“We make sure that the end result is efficient, accessible and well planned out,” Blackie said.

Blackie and Mick say that since the buyout there was less pressure on them.

“The pressure was never financial,” Blackie said. “Money was never an issue; it’s just that now there are more people to make decisions.

“The idea of selling the business, to make life a little easier. I mean, if you don’t let go there is no point in going on.

“It was the pressure we put on ourselves. We did what we liked; we had time off or did 15 hour days. We did whatever the market dictated.

A lot of people are slaves to a business, but we weren’t because we surrounded ourselves with good people.”

Interviewed May 2018