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Company History
John Gidley & Co was established in 1898 by John Gidley initially
as a broker of hardware with offices down the western end of
Melbourne, Australia.
Charles
Browne (1890-1980) joined the company around 1905
and at this time the company moved into the brokering of seed
and
grain. In those days business was done by telegraph. later
early
telephones and the brokers would walk their samples around
to the
various merchants located in the same general area.
With the advent of WWI
John Gidley went to enlist but was told he
had a weak heart. Apparently the shock of this was too much and
he died suddenly and quite young shortly thereafter around 1917.
Charles Browne purchased
the company in and around that year
and was later joined in the business by his 3 sons Charlie (b
1922), John (1926-1994) and Max (b 1933). One of Charles
daughters, Dorothy also worked for the firm in the early days and
one of her jobs was to drive Charles into the city each day in their
1924 Itala which would be parked on the kerb in Collins Street at
9am each day and then driven home that night. Sandwiches and
tea would be ordered up to the offices for lunch each day.
Charles retired in 1960
with the 3 sons carrying on the business.
With changes in Barley marketing regulations trading of hard
produce was added to the business and to be closer to the Victoria
Market the business moved to 26
Milton St West Melbourne
in
1965. Several other diversified projects were carried out at that
time with Charlie operating a hollow and tyning machine for golf
course green renovation and the company winning a contract to
landscape the Punt Road
Melbourne underpass in the late
1960s.
In the early 1970s
Charlie moved to Queensland
with John and
Max moving the business to the new Footscray Wholesale Market
where the mornings were spent trading swedes, pumpkins and
onions and John brokering in the afternoon.
A change of direction in
1979 saw John resume seed brokering full
time with Max retaining involvement in the Wholesale Market. At this
stage the fax machine is still not invented so a very large telex machine
took pride of place in John’s office for interstate and overseas
business.
In the 1980s John was
very successful and enjoyed working with the
late great Kevin Tyner in Melbourne and a great ally in Alwyn Gee
at Roberts Limited Tasmania to name a few.
The current owner and
operator of the business John David Browne
joined the company in 1991 joined by his wife Maria in the same year.
Further expansion and the untimely death of a long time co-broker
Reg Jones of RA Jones & Co, Sydney
saw the purchase and consolidation
of that business in 1996.
From the late 1990s to
the present date has seen our business further diversify internationally.
2008 we celebrate the 110th
birthday of our business…. 110 and still going as strong and as keen as
ever!
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