Hills Hoist clothesline intellectual property sold off to US-based company

THE humble Hills Hoist clothesline once found in almost every Aussie backyard has gone the way of Vegemite, the Iced Vovo and Victoria Bitter.

The Hills Hoist clothesline is a deadset Aussie icon.

THE humble Hills Hoist clothesline once found in almost every Aussie backyard has gone the way of Vegemite, the Iced Vovo and Victoria Bitter, with the intellectual property sold off to an overseas manufacturing giant.

Hills Limited, now a listed technology solutions company with a share market value of about $100 million, yesterday said it had sold the Hills Home Living unit to the local arm of the $US1.2 billion New York-based Griffon Corporation.

The Hills Hoist has even been part of the art world. Iconic Antipodean installation by Andrew Baines at Henley Beach. Picture: Simon Mitris from Henley SLSC.

The parties are remaining tight-lipped about the sale price, although the unit posted $43.8 million in revenue in 2015.

Griffon is no stranger to snapping up well-known Australian brands, with management at its local subsidiary AMES Australasia buying Westmix and Kelso in 2010 and snapping up Northcote Pottery, Trojan, Nylex and Cyclone in 2014.

But the new owners say they will restore the faded brand back to its former glory. And AMES yesterday said 90 per cent of Hills staff, mostly based in Sydney, had also taken up new job offers, although staff numbers were not given.

A housewife demonstrates the advantages of a Hills Hoist, 1968. Picture: National Archives of Australia

Spokesman James Lomax said the local management had been building a stable of notable local brands and reinvigorating them with investment, design and an ­expanded product range.

Mr Lomax said AMES would aim to bring product improvements to brands that are “known and ­trusted”. “This ensures a stable and viable future,” he said.

“We are motivated by the opportunity, but it is an opportunity. There is significant work to do.

“We don’t want Hills to be something that ‘used to be’.”

Come on, you know you did this as a kid, too! Supplied

The clotheslines have already been  manufactured in Asia for many years.

Company founder Lance Hill’s clothes hoist became a symbol of Australian home ownership in the 1950s.

But it was fellow Adelaide resident Gilbert Toyne who patented the first rotary clothesline in 1926.

The divested Hills unit includes 240 patents for everything from clotheslines, laundry products, ironing boards, garden sprayers and ­watering systems.

Company founder Lance Hill’s clothes hoist became a symbol of Australian home ownership in the 1950s.