Plans for R.M. Williams to be Aussie made

Billionaire mining magnate ­Andrew Forrest has warned that building a skilled workforce will be a hurdle facing bootmaker R.M. Williams if it is to grow its company and become wholly Australian-made.

Andrew Forrest and wife Nicola will be touring the RM Williams manufacturing floor in Salisbury. It's the first time since they bought the business. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Billionaire mining magnate ­Andrew Forrest has warned that building a skilled workforce will be a hurdle facing bootmaker RM Williams if it is to grow its company and become wholly Australian-made.

The nation’s second-richest person and wife Nicola toured the brand’s Adelaide factory for the first time since it was revealed in October the pair’s investment firm Tattarang had bought the 88-year-old company, for a rumoured $190m, returning it to Australian ownership.

In an eight-minute speech to workers, Mr Forrest, dressed in RM Williams apparel, said he would do everything possible to bring “RMs home” and become an “only Australian-made” brand.

“Now we’re doing it to a large extent, (but) to a large extent we don’t have the skills here among us,” he said.

“To generate those skills we probably need to bring others in to help train us, so we re-skill and upskill and we do things in our company, in our state, in our country, which have been done all over the world and we bring it back here.

“That’s going to be a challenge and when we accept this challenge and we decide we’re going to do this together there’s going to be more of us, we’re going to employ more people.”

RM Williams employs 900 staff nationally and 400 at its Frost Road, Salisbury manufacturing arm in Adelaide.

At a press conference after a factory tour, during which he and Mrs Forrest hugged and shook hands with staff, Mr Forrest said he would deliver a “vision” for Australian-made product “as soon as possible”.

“We’re going to have all the stock standard hurdles, we simply have lost the skills in Australia and it’s up to us to bring those skills back,” he said. “We don’t even have a TAFE which can provide the skills here in South Australia, so we’ve really got to start at the ground floor and we’re prepared to start at the ground floor and work our way up.

“We’ve lost so many skills here in South Australia, skills around metalwork and other trades, which we really need to get back.”

Mrs Forrest said there was a lack of space at the Salisbury factory, which was making 1200 boots and 800 belts a day.

“It’s obviously something we will have to look at,” she said, when asked if they were looking to expand the factory footprint.

Employee Eddie Borghart, 66, of Para Hills, said the Forrests’ purchase of the RM Williams brand had boosted confidence.

“There’s a good feeling,” he said. “It’s always been a good company but you can see things starting to change again, not just the culture but the morale.

“The point Andrew made about the training is important, we are losing skills … there are amazing people who work here and have worked here for 40 years and they’ve trained people and we need to make sure we don’t lose that expertise.”

RM Williams was previously 82 per cent-owned by L Catterton, a private equity fund backed by luxury conglomerate LVMH.