Garry Kennedy started what would one day become Kennedy Trailers in his parent’s garage, repairing bulldozers and other timber working machinery.
From that modest beginning in 1980, Kennedy Trailers has become one of East Gippsland’s best known and most respected businesses, a multi-generational family company employing 60 locals and supporting an untold number of local community groups.
In 1982 Garry and his wife Debbie purchased a block of land in Holloway Street, Bairnsdale, and erected their first workshop.
Four years later, Kennedy Trailers built its first log trailer, the beginning of what would become the business’ foundational product - custom log haulage solutions for the timber industry.
In 1990 Garry’s first folding skel trailer for Blair and Campbell of Bruthen, using hydraulics controlled from inside the truck cabin, was to revolutionise the log haulage market, and by 2000 Kennedy's was producing about 50 trailers a year, including an export contract to West Africa.
The business soon expanded into building side tippers for the mining industry, and it wasn’t long before their innovative designs followed.
There were many milestones along the way, but a particularly proud moment for the Kennedys was the opening in 2008 of a 2,660 square metre purpose-built facility in Bairnsdale, allowing the company to run a production line to improve productivity and efficiency, increasing the amount of trailers they could manufacture in a year.
Along with the ingenuity of Garry’s designs and his ability to understand the needs of drivers and the industries they serve, perhaps the single trait most responsible for the company’s success is a constant drive for innovation.
With both the timber and mining industries subject to seismic fluctuations, the Kennedy’s have been able to ride out damaging downturns by developing new technologies and products and finding new customer markets.
Joined now by his sons Cory and Lynden, the one-person business that Garry Kennedy started in his parent’s garage now builds more than 150 trailers per year and is the lifeblood of dozens of families in the Bairnsdale community.
For more information about Kennedy Trailers visit www.kennedytrailers.com.au
