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 (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary Exchange (organized market), securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or c ...

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, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

, 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), from the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

. 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 States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

.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 Automated cash handling, cash handling company, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Its operations include cash-in-transit, ATM replenishment & maintenance, and cash management & payment services, such as va ...

. In 1972, Brambles purchased the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company. 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 platform, oil and gas platforms and other offshore installations. They typically range from in length and are distinguished by the large open deck area used to st ...

s. Following a threat by Brambles to withdraw the loss-making Manly ferry service, the Public Transport Commission 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, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

and Procor's United Kingdom business. In December 1989 equipment hire business Wreckair was purchased. In 1990 Brambles acquired Econofrieght a

Thornaby Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north of York and south-east of Middlesbrough. On the south bank of the River Tees, Thornaby falls within th ...

based heavy haulage company which was one of the biggest heavy haulage company later the business was sold in two different parts light heavy transport to GE Curtis heavy haulage a

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

based subsidiary owned by Sarens in 1997 and rest of the business to

ALE Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...

in 1999 a Hixon based heavy haulage company which was later acquired by Mammoet in 2020. In 1996, Brambles Transport Services was sold to Toll Holdings. In June 2000, Brambles sold its Eurotainer container business to Ermewa and Brinks Brambles armoured car unit to Chubb Security. In August 2001, the support services activities of GKN (which included interest in CHEP and Cleanaway) were merged into a separate company, Brambles Industries plc (listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

) 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 a ...

with Brambles Industries Limited. In December 2001, the Wreckair equipment hire business was sold to Coates Hire. 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 Port of Brisbane, Brisbane, Fremantle Harbour, Fremantle, Port of Melbourne, Melbourne and Port Botany (seaport), Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exch ...

. 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 private-equity and investment company. , the firm had completed private-equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total ...

.Cleanaway is final Brambles sell-off
''

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

'' 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. In ...

. 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 2008, Brambles acquired LeanLogistics. In April 2011 it acquired IFCO. In December 2012 it acquired Pallecon. In December 2013, the Recall storage business was spun-off. In February 2016 it acquired BXB Digital.Brambles push into big data with BXB Digital in chase for internet of things
''Sydney Morning Herald'' 21 February 2016

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 Former dual-listed companies Security companies of Australia Transport companies of Australia Transport companies established in 1875 1875 establishments in Australia