AUTOMOTIVE trade parts and equipment supplier Burson Auto Parts turns 50 this year, growing from a business selling parts from the boots of the founders’ cars to 190 stores and sitting under the Bapcor Ltd umbrella with 1100 outlets in Australia and New Zealand.

Started in 1971 by Ron Burgoine (the “Bur” in Burson) and Garry Johnson (the “Son” in Burson), the business worked from the boots of their cars selling parts to Victorian automotive workshops.

From car boots to vans, the two businessmen opened their first Burson Auto Parts distribution store in the Melbourne suburb of Braybrook in 1978 and, in 1984, the first interstate outlet was opened in Albury in NSW.

Garry Johnson bought out his partner in 1986, one year before the business expanded to 15 stores.

The expansion of Burson Auto Parts was attributed to an emphasis on supplying premium quality products to customers, and accessing local and global brands to ensure the right part for the specific repair job – a commitment that the company said remains strong.

By 1996 it opened its 25th store and established a new purpose-built head office and 15,000-square-metre distribution centre in the northern Melbourne suburb of Preston.

In the following three years a further 16 stores were added to the Burson network in NSW along with a strong expansion into Queensland when the company acquired 11 Coventry Group stores.

The combination of store acquisitions and greenfield Burson Auto Parts locations that followed saw the company reach the milestone of 50 stores in 2004.

It added five stores in NSW in 2006 and in the next four years, opened its first outlet in the Northern Territory and a further 11 in South Australia.

By 2011, with more than 80 national stores, company founder Garry Johnson and his COO Andrew Schram – who had spent 34 years with the company starting as assistant store manager in Burson’s Braybrook outlet – sold to Darryl Abotomey and the management team backed by Quadrant Private Equity.

Under the new team and Mr Abotomey as CEO and managing director, Burson opened its 100th store in May 2012. One year later it bought Brisbane-based Precision Auto Spares Group, adding another four stores to the network plus an additional eight stores across Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Burson Auto Parts became Burson Group Ltd in April 2014 when it became a public listed company and joined the Australian Securities Exchange.

By 2015, Burson had become national, with stores located in every Australian state and territory, with the addition of an 8000-square-metre Brisbane-based distribution centre.

In July 2015 it acquired Metcash Automotive Holdings, making Burson the nation’s leading provider of automotive parts, accessories, equipment, service and solutions.

Burson Group Ltd became Bapcor Limited – an acronym of Burson Auto Parts – in 2016 and expanded into Asia, opening its first store in Thailand. A further five stores have since been opened in Thailand.

The company has also continued its expansion trail, adding Precision Automotive Equipment, Bearing Wholesalers, Roadsafe Automotive Products, Baxters Auto Electrical and MTQ Engine Systems in 2016.

Subsequently, Tricor Engineering, AADi Australia, Commercial Truck Parts Group, Toperformance Products, Truckline and Diesel Drive became a part of the group and in 2017, it acquired the publicly-listed Hellaby business in New Zealand which included BNT, a New Zealand trade-focussed business similar to Burson, as well as specialist wholesale businesses in Australia including JAS, PAT, Diesel Distributors and Federal Batteries.

Now alongside the company’s iron-clad continued commitment to the trade with Burson Auto Parts, the company became the region’s largest automotive aftermarket specialist company with an unparalleled footprint of trade, specialist wholesale and retail segments across more than 1100 locations in Australia and New Zealand.

It now has 1100 locations across Australia and New Zealand, including 190 Burson stores (by October 2020) and is on target to reach 200 stores within this financial year and then 240 stores within the next five years.

Burson Auto Parts co-founder and current major Bapcor shareholder, Garry Johnson, said it “had been an exciting journey with a great deal of worry and great achievement against inevitable headwinds.”

“Most of all it was a shared journey, initially with Ron Burgoine and then for the greater part with Andrew Schram, Terry Penney and all the staff at Team Burson,” he said.

“It is great to see both the excitement and the growth continue so strongly 50 years down the track.”

Bapcor Limited CEO and managing director Darryl Abotomey said: “From the humblest of beginnings, this Australian company was able to forge its place against major opposition, with steady and gradual growth for as long as that could be achieved under private ownership.”

“Now as the heart and soul of the Bapcor Group, we are privileged to continue the exciting Burson Auto Parts journey and establish a platform for continued success across the next 50 years.”

The Burson Auto Parts’ Golden Anniversary will be celebrated together with the company’s dedicated 1800 team members, 30,000 loyal trade customers and more than 1000 suppliers through a number of exciting trade promotions and events scheduled to take place throughout 2021.

By Neil Dowling