Brambles Limited

Brambles Limited

Type	Public
Traded as	ASX: BXB
Industry	Commercial & Professional Services
Founded	1875
Headquarters	Sydney, Australia
Key people	Stephen Johns, Chairman Tom Gorman, CEO
Products	Pallets, Reusable Produce Crates (RPCs), Containers
Revenue	US$ 5.405 billion (2014)
Net income	US$ 585.0 million (2014)
Number of employees	circa 14,000 (2014)
Parent	Brambles Limited
Website	www.brambles.com

Brambles Limited is the ultimate holding company of the Brambles Group (Brambles) and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Brambles is a supply-chain logistics group specializing in the pooling of unit-load equipment and associated services. The company focuses on the outsourced management of pallets, crates and containers. As at 30 June 2014 Brambles employed more than 14,000 people and owned approximately 470 million pallets, crates and containers through a network of about 850 service centres.

History

Brambles traces its history to 1875, when Walter Bramble established a butchery business in Newcastle, the operations of which he gradually expanded into transport and logistics. Brambles first listed in Australia 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. This same year the company changed its name to Brambles Industries Limited and moved its head office from Newcastle to Sydney. In the years that followed, Brambles entered a number of new sectors including the waste management sector in 1970, through its Cleanaway business and the record management sector in 1979 through its Recall business.

In 1975, Brambles formed a joint venture with UK company Guest Keen & Nettlefold (GKN), to establish the CHEP business in the UK. In the subsequent years, the CHEP business expanded throughout continental Europe, US and Asia and a second joint venture, this time for the Cleanaway business, was formed between the two companies. In 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) which then entered became a dual-listed company with Brambles Industries Limited.

In 2006, Brambles streamlined its operations to focus on its pallet pooling business, CHEP and its record management business, Recall. To this end, the company’s Australian waste management business, Cleanaway Australia and its Brambles Industrial Services business were sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for about A$1.2 billion. Then the Company sold Cleanaway UK to Veolia of France in a £651 million deal. Subsequently, Following these divestments, Brambles unified its Australian and British-listed entities into a single entity, Brambles Limited, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

In 2013, Brambles became focused on the provision of equipment pooling solutions following the demerger of the Recall information management business, which became owned by Recall Holdings Limited, a separate company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and independent of the Brambles Group.

Operations / Acquisitions

Brambles has three operating segments and operations in more than 50 countries worldwide:

• Pallets: This operating segment comprises Brambles’ pallet pooling and associated services businesses, predominantly under the CHEP brand and serving customers in multiple supply chains across three key regions: Americas; Europe, Middle East & Africa; and Asia Pacific.
• RPCs: This operating segment comprises Brambles’ reusable produce crate (RPC) pooling services business, serving customers in the fresh produce sector. In North America, South America and Europe this segment operates under the IFCO brand while in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it operates under the CHEP brand.
• Containers: This operating segment comprises four distinct businesses: CHEP Pallecon Solutions, CHEP Aerospace Solutions, CHEP Automotive Solutions and CHEP Catalyst & Chemicals Containers.

In 2008, Brambles acquired LeanLogistics, a global solutions provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) transportation management technology and supply chain services.

Since 2009, Brambles has made a number of acquisitions, the largest of which have been:

• IFCO, a provider of pooled reusable produce crates (RPC) to the food supply chain worldwide and of pallet services in the USA, for an enterprise value of €923 million (US$1,255 million). The acquisition was completed in April 2011.
• Pallecon, a provider of intermediate bulk containers in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, for €135 million (US$177 million). The acquisition was completed in January 2013.

Management

The majority of the board is Australian-based, as is the board chairman Graham Kraehe. Tom Gorman became CEO effective from November 1, 2009.

The current Board of Directors are:

• Christine Cross (Non Exec. Director)
• Doug Duncan (Non Exec. Director)
• Tony Froggatt (Non Exec. Director)
• David Gosnell (Non Exec. Director)
• Tom Gorman (Chief Executive Officer)
• Tahira Hassan (Non Exec. Director)
• Stephen Johns (Chairman)
• Carolyn Kay (Non Exec. Director)
• Brian Long (Non Exec. Director)
• Wayne Scott (Chief Supervisor)

The Executive Leadership Team is:

• Tom Gorman, Chief Executive Officer
• Jean Holley, Chief Information Officer
• Peter Mackie, Group President, Pallets
• Wolfgang Orgeldinger, Group President, RPCs
• Jason Rabbino, Group President, Containers
• Nick Smith, Group Senior Vice President, Human Resources
• Zlatko Todorcevski, Chief Financial Officer

External links

• Official site
• Yahoo profile