How war-time mates went from bicycles repairs to big rig kings

When veterans Jack Hurley and Allan Brown started a bicycle repair shop, little did they know it’d grow into a multi-million dollar trucking empire.

When army mates Jack Hurley and Alan Brown got together after World War II to set up a small bicycle repair shop they funded the business with wartime coupons.

Fast forward 75 years and the company that started in the northern NSW town of Kyogle is still run by members of both families, but has expanded into a multi-million dollar trucking business employing more than 400 people with sites around the country.

Instead of modest repairs of two-wheeled vehicles, Brown and Hurley sells and services 18-wheelers as one of the largest dealers of long-distance trucks in the country.

Brown and Hurley chief executive Paul Hurley, the grandson of Jack, said both men worked as mechanics in the army during the war but had ambitions to set up their own business.

“They started off repairing bicycles but soon realised there was no money in selling labour,” said Mr Hurley.

“They then got into selling agricultural equipment like tractors.”

The men got their first big break when they started a dealership selling British-made Leyland trucks.

“The business took off because of the demand to haul timber during the post-war housing boom,” he said. Mr Hurley said the early days of the business were tough, but the men learnt important lessons in resilience as well as loyalty.

Paul Hurley on a Kenworth. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“They had a couple of petrol bowsers at the front of the shop and one day a tanker pulled up to fill up the storage tanks,” he said.

“Jack and Allan wanted to pay with coupons that were fairly common after the war but the tanker driver demanded cash.”

A mad rush to get the money ensued but they were knocked back by all the banks in town, except Commonwealth which offered them a personal overdraft. “The company has banked only with the Commonwealth since then,” he said.

Mr Hurley said loyalty extended to the firm’s customers with more than 80 percent being repeat clients.

“We have people who are third generation customers,” he said.

In 1964, the company sold the first Kenworth truck in Australia for the princely sum of 35,000 pounds, starting a 50-year relationship with the Melbourne-based manufacturer.

Mr Hurley said the company has since gone on to sell 17,000 Kenworths, which he estimated over the years would have travelled enough kilometres to reach 267 times to the Sun.

The company sells seven per cent of all new trucks in Australia with branches at Kyogle, Coffs Harbour and Tamworth in NSW and Darra, Rockhampton, Yatala, Townsville, Caboolture, and Toowoomba in Queensland.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic had underscored the importance of the trucking industry to Australia.

The basic timber-hauling trucks sold by Brown and Hurley in the 1950s have since been replaced by long-haul semi-trailers equipped with comfortable beds, televisions, microwaves and fridges. “The vehicles these days are homes away from home and instead of timber they are more likely to be hauling food to supermarkets,” said Mr Hurley.

Jack Hurley and Allan Brown during the war

Paul Hurley’s father Jim, who ran the business with Allan Brown’s son Rob when the two founders retired, said the growth of the business has been driven by changes in the logistics industry. “When you used to buy a fridge, you would go into a retailer and they would have stock on the floor,” said Jim Hurley, who retired in 2012. “Now they will order one from the factory in Melbourne so the trucks have really become mobile warehouses.”

Jim Hurley, who started in the Kyogle garage as a mechanic in the 1950s, said modern trucks did substantially more kilometres and were more efficient than when he started in the business. “The logging trucks we used to sell would do about 12,000km in a year,” he said. “But the modern prime movers are doing about 450,000kms.”

Underscoring the brand loyalty of drivers to the company, 75 special edition 75th Brown and Hurley Kenworths were all sold within 24 hours recently.

Looking to the future, Paul Hurley said technology was set to change trucking in the coming years. While driverless trucks may be a while off, he said one possibility was “platooning” which involved a convoy of wirelessly controlled trucks with one driver at the front.

“The technology is there,” he said. “It is just a matter of providing the legislation.”

Mr Hurley said the company had always stuck to the motto “principles before profit”, a philosophy that had stood the company in good stead.

Brown and Hurley sells most of its trucks to owner drivers or small trucking firms as opposed to the big corporate haulers. “Everyone here has a passion for the industry,” he said . “You get to work with hard working people.”

The original Brown & Hurley garage in Kyogle.

Originally published as How war-time mates went from bicycles repairs to big rig kings