VALE - Jack Gregory. Also - the history of "Arnold's".

 "Mr. Gregory", as I will always think of him, even though he asked me to call him "Jack" at the reunion in 2005, was the person who actually interviewed me as a naive country lad of 18 back in January of 1964. He wrote to me a couple of weeks later to advise that I had a position as an Apprentice Electrical Mechanic with Arnold Elevator Services.
I still have that letter.

In late July I received an email from Peter Gregory advising me that his father had died on 12th. August 2015, aged 94.

Although suffering from Parkinson's he had been in good spirits and, as Peter put it, "his heart simply stopped".

In responding to Peter's email I asked if he had any information regarding the beginnings of the company - who was "Arnold" and how did the Gregory family become involved?

So Peter put together some information gleaned from conversations with his dad over the years and I present that below.

Like myself, I am sure that many of you would not be aware of the origins of the company and may be as curious as I was about its history.

What follows is from Peter.

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ARNOLDS - THE BACKGROUND & HISTORY.

Arnolds has been a big part of our family, and in particular Dad’s life.

That connection started in 1914 when my grandfather Harold Gregory joined a company called Major, Stevens and Coates - this business manufactured and installed lifts and I believe it was the Australian subsidiary of an English company of the same name.

It was located at 14-16 O’Connor Street, Chippendale, where it shared the building with another company called Arnold and Co. 

Arnold was a general engineering business that had a particular capability of wire work. From what I understand Major and Co sold and installed the lifts using their imported components. They also often sourced lift cars (incorporating wire mesh) and other engineered components from Arnold and Co. Clearly the two companies, as well as sharing premises, worked very closely together.

During the depression years both businesses found the going tough - with no new work happening and only maintenance work to keep going – and Major and Co pulled out of Australia.

My grandfather, Harold, together with Colin Doust, the manager of Arnold and Co organised a management buyout and made the two business one under the Arnold and Co banner. (As an aside it appears that Major, Stevens and Major many years later may have also joined the Otis stable).

The “new” Arnold’s was managed jointly by Colin Doust, who had an engineering background, and Harold Gregory, who brought accountancy and management skills.

 On 27 January 1938 the merged company was renamed Arnold Engineering and Lifts, clearly stating the focus of the company as “vertical transportation”.

I understand that Colin became very ill and he died in 1944. And my grandfather, Harold, then managing the company on his own, died very suddenly in April 1945.

At that time Dad was serving in the army in New Guinea, and when the war ended and he was discharged, he had to step into the role of managing the Arnolds.

For someone who had left school at 15 with an intermediate certificate, worked for a couple of years as a clerk at an insurance company and had started studying accountancy before joining the army, I expect this was a pretty steep learning curve. It also meant that he had to forgo the opportunity provided to ex service men of studying at university. He saw many of his friends become lawyers, doctors or engineers as a result of this.

Arnolds faced then, as it did all through his involvement with it, the challenge of competing with the bigger players with the resources to finance continued investment and access government support for research and development.

Never the less Dad set upon a path of investing in needed equipment for the needs of a changing industry and a commitment to quality product. A path that also meant the company rarely paid any dividends to its shareholders.

The most significant undertaking of the company was, in the late 50s, the construction of the lifts for the T1 power station in the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The book “The Snowy Mountains Scheme Phase 1 -The Upper Tumut Projects” by W Diesendorf, stated that this was the longest in the world (greater than the Empire State Building!) and because of the unique requirements of the job “posed a number of unusual engineering problems”.

I’ve attached a copy of a page from this book that describes the lifts at T1 power station.

While originally intended to be completed in association with another company that brought some specific technical expertise to the table, as things turned out, Arnolds had to go it alone.

The challenges for this small Australian company were major and is a real tribute to the resilience and ingenuity of all of the Arnold’s people who worked on the project that the job was completed and that the company survived.

Following the Snowy near death experience, Dad worked to build Arnolds into an Australia-wide company with the necessary critical mass for continuing success. This started with the acquisition, in the early 60s, of a lift service company, which I think was also located in Chippendale – and this was also the start of Arnold Elevator Services as separate company.

Serious discussions began with a number of other players in the lift industry, covering most capital cities, to merge. There was initial agreement, and the name “Ascendex” was created as the brand for this planned new national lift company.

Negotiations got to the point of the establishment of a separate over-arching company and even of printing stationary, when some of the other parties decided to retain their independence and withdrew. What looked like a promising path for the future quickly became a dead-end.

Arnolds continued to face the dilemma of being both too big to alter course without serious pain and too small to build the level of throughput that would fund the operation and the needed continued investment for growth.

In the early 70s many options for Arnolds were explored to find a way to successfully take the company forward.

As part of this process Dad stepped away from the day to day management of Arnolds and became the non-executive Chairman with Jim Tankard taking over as Managing Director.

Very fortunately, at this time, Arnold’s was becoming a more important link in the Otis supply chain.

With a change in Managing Director at Otis, and his recognition of the value of this relationship for both companies, negotiations started, which of course led to the eventual outcome of Otis acquiring the business. In doing so Otis not only secured their supply chain, but also gained technical know-how through the Arnolds people, and as they later acknowledged, a very effective and efficient operation.

From the start of his time with Arnolds, Dad was involved in the industry; initially with the Lift Manufacturers Association; then the Building Industry Subcontractors Organisation; followed by the Building Industry Advisory Council.

He was then the co founder of NatSpec, which I understand is still making an important contribution to the effective completion of major projects.

Throughout all of these endeavours he retained the perspective and understanding of the difficulties faced by sub contractors trying to work around all of the other players on a major building site.

Much of this work he did in these industry roles improved both the overall operation of the industry as well as the way in which sub contractors participated in this.

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My sincere thanks to Peter for this information, which answers many questions which have circulated around my mind for years.