TRADE TALK
FAMILY FIRST FOCUS DRIVING R&J BATTERIES CEO FORWARD At work and at home, a focus on family is what spurs Stuart Hamilton on The son of a mechanic, R&J Batteries Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Hamilton, says he was always destined to work in the automotive space. “I was born and raised in Bendigo Victoria and through various employers, traveled around Australia a bit up and down the East Coast before settling in Ballarat where I currently am in 2006,” he said. “From a very young age, I was always destined to be a motor mechanic. I was aways into cars, I get that from my father. I left school at 15 and duly got my apprenticeship at Ron Poyser Holden because my father was a mechanic. “I may have always been destined to be a motor mechanic, but it didn’t last terribly long, I was at the dealership straight out of school for six years as a mechanic, but then I realized it wasn’t for me, so I moved out of being a mechanic and had a variety of roles and careers spanning everything from car sales and media to business banking. “It is daunting when you leave school at 15 and go into the big wide world, but Poyser’s was a wonderful place for a young fellow to learn his trade and grow up in the world and I was there for 11 years all up: six years as a mechanic and five years in car sales.” While he eventually moved out of mechanics, Stuart’s love of cars has never wavered. “I love the Australian classics. I always used to be a Holden man, dyed in the blood. But as you get older, you appreciate all sorts and I will always have a soft spot for the Australian classics,” Stuart said.
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Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine August 2022
“After I finished up at Poyser Holden, through a friend of a friend I was given an opportunity to apply for a role in one of the local television stations in advertising sales, which I did for a couple of years. “Through that company, which at the time was known as Southern Cross Ten and is now part of the nationwide Austereo network, I was given my first job in management, which saw my wife and I shipped to Gippsland. “A year or two later, we took a promotion to Canberra and then another promotion a year or so later saw me take up a General Sales Management role in Coffs Harbor. I was doing that role quite happily until the company got taken over and the role I was in was made redundant. “I was offered redeployment back to Victoria, which was fortuitous at the time because my wife and I got to be home in time to spend a bit of time with our parents; particularly our dads who were getting on in years and have since passed away. It was a difficult time, but in hindsight, it was fortuitous.” That relocation back to Victoria would ultimately lead to Stuart taking on his current role with R&J Batteries. “The relocation back to Ballarat was still with Southern Cross Ten as they were then known and R&J Batteries was and still is a large advertiser with them in regional Australia,” Stuart explains. “I had met (R&J Batteries Co-Founder) Ray Robson and his then partner, John, hence R&J,
through a variety of advertising related activities and we just became good acquaintances and got to know each other a bit. “I then went on to take a role in business banking with Westpac, but Ray and I kept in touch and saw each other at mutual gatherings. “When the time came that John wanted to get out of the business, it was amicable and Ray bought his share of the partnership and then reached out to me one day just to say, ‘there’s a change happening in the business. I wouldn’t mind having a chat with you.’ “I didn’t hesitate to say ‘I would love to have a chat and come on board,’ and that lead to me joining the business as the Southern Region Manager. I was in charge of the southern half of Australia at the time and there was another chap in charge of the northern half. “From that formative role of Southern Region Manager I became General Manager following
