Dahlsens-Building on History

Building on History

JAMIE DAHLSEN JOHN DAHLSEN GEOFF DAHLSEN

LEADING BUILDING MATERIALS SUPPLIER DAHLSENS REMAINS AS COMMITTED AS EVER TO EAST GIPPSLAND AFTER MORE THAN 140 YEARS OF OPERATION IN THE REGION.

WORDS BY CHRIS WEST

No family has been more influential within the Bairnsdale community and East Gippsland generally than the Dahlsen clan. It all began with the arrival of intrepid Danish gold seeker Johan Christian Dahlsen in 1862 after sailing from Denmark to Australia aboard The Mayflower via England and New Zealand.

Amongst a catalogue of achievements, Johan Dahlsen was a pioneering force in the establishment of business ventures throughout East Gippsland in gold mining, contract building, sawmilling, transport and distribution, shipping, guesthouses, property development and farming related activities. Most significantly, he founded JC Dahlsen and Co in Bairnsdale in 1877, which continues to this day.

The company has evolved, matured and grown significantly over those ensuing 144 years. The initial business firstly morphed into a department store in Bairnsdale before subsequently transforming into a national trade operation.

Dahlsens today is proud to be recognised as a leading supplier of materials from foundation to fit out, being manufactured timber and steel truss and frames, floors and steel fabrication. Its customer base of over 12,000 builders ranges from the small builder and serious renovator to the leading national builders building homes across Australia and to builders of multi-unit complexes, including Aged Care and Retirement Facilities. In addition, Queensland operates window and door plants.

Sales across the business are currently over $500m per annum on 88 sites.

Along the journey, five generations of Dahlsen family members have contributed to the ongoing success of the business.

As wide as its reach has grown throughout the country, Dahlsens has always remained steadfast to its East Gippsland roots.

No name is synonymous with business in the region than Dahlsens. The company employs around 100 staff in Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance and almost 200 people across the whole of Gippsland, along with supporting upwards of 100 charities and local events. Australia-wide, Dahlsens employs over 1,200 people.

Speaking at a family celebration held in Bairnsdale earlier this year, current Co-Chairman John Dahlsen emphatically reiterated the company’s commitment to East Gippsland. Whilst some notable developments are in the planning around its operation in Bairnsdale, he gave an assurance that there is no intention for the company to abandon its spiritual home in any way.

Dahlsens has let a contract to Brett Neilson (BJN) to build a roof truss box, trade box (around 7,000 sq m) along with outdoor storage and a logistics (also around 7,000 sq m) complex at 108 Bengworden Road for the purposes of consolidating all of its trade, plaster, roof truss and support office activities in the one location. The new complex, including the outdoor operating activity, will be equivalent to about three Kmart stores.

The site is opposite the road to the Dahlsen 30 lot sub-division at 111 Forge Creek Road. With all 30 lots ranging from about 1,600 sq m to about 4,300 sq m sold. It is hoped that the new owners start building their own industrial complexes on the various lots in the new year.

Construction of the new facility at 108 Bengworden Road, will cost between $10m to $11m, and will commence in early January 2022. It is anticipated to be completed in October/November 2022 when all existing Bairnsdale activities will be transferred to this site.

No change is planned around the company’s highly successful Garden Centre at Dalmahoy Street in Bairnsdale, which was recently expanded by approximately a third. This will continue to operate in its present form with the very successful New Leaf Café, owned and operated by Jackie Benson.

Johan Christian Dahlsen

Percy Dahlsen 1897

P.B. Dahlsen As Young Man

Staff Presentaton 1984

Dahlsen Office Staff 1951

Dahlsen Bailey Street Store1954

Dahlsen New Project at Forge Creek Road

Dahlsen Dalmahoy Street Garden Centre

Dahlsen Head Office East Malvern

Dahlsen Store Bairnsdale in 2002

Dahlsen New Project at Forge Creek Road When Dalmahoy Street is vacated at the end of 2022, Dahlsens will build in stages some serviced and unserviced apartments and town houses. Extensive research of the market has established that there is now a desperate need for a complex like this which will have on the ground floor various medical facilities. Again, Bairnsdale is crying out for a consolidation of the numerous medical facilities that are available in the town.

Dahlsens has also been excited by several notable recent developments including the establishment of new sites at Thomastown in Victoria, Charters Towers, Townsville and Gordonvale in Queensland. And in New South Wales, a new trade store at Alexandra, a roof truss plant at Riverstone and a new distribution centre at Smithfield. Further developments and acquisitions are in negotiation, particularly in NSW which will lead to considerable expansion.

Today, Dahlsens has a presence that stretches from the far north of Western Australia across the Top End to the indigenous communities in the Cape and remote island communities of Far North Queensland, down through Cairns, Sydney and southern New South Wales to its heartland in Gippsland and across regional Victoria. It is one of Australia’s oldest and most successful and continuously owned private companies with a remarkable history.

Following its establishment by Johan Dahlsen in 1877, the business continued under his enterprise and vision until his death in 1906. Johan had changed his name to John upon being naturalised in 1878. He was renowned for his no-nonsense persona, sharp business acumen and unshakeable belief in what Bairnsdale and East Gippsland could potentially become. John was survived by his wife Jane, with whom he raised a family of eight children.

Their eldest son Percy took over the reins of the business following his father’s passing. Percy has been a 20% shareholder from the outset, along with his mother Jane and two of his siblings Amy and Frederick. Under Percy’s leadership, the company grew dramatically, until health issues concerning his heart caused him to hand control over to his youngest son Keith (known as Bill) when aged in his mid-60s, ending his 50-year involvement in the business.

Bill was later joined in the business by his older brother Ron, who had earlier pursued a different career path. The baton next passed into the hands of the fourth generation, comprising Bill and Ron’s combined total of six children. It is in this era that the strategy of the family changed significantly and extended its operation beyond East Gippsland for the first time.

Bill’s eldest son John became a partner at a legal firm in Melbourne called Corr & Corr. He studied for an MBA and became a Chairman and Director of some of Australia’s largest companies, including Woolworths and the Herald & Weekly Times, HSV-7, Advertiser newspaper, Queensland Press and The Warehouse in New Zealand. He was also Co-Founder and Chairman of Southern Cross Broadcasting, Australia’s largest regional television, talk back radio network and TV production house. John was also one of the founders of Melbourne Business School, and for some years its Chairman.

But John was destined to also be the principal driving force behind the progression of the Dahlsens business into the contemporary era. In 2010, his two siblings and three cousins at their own request sold their shareholdings in the Dahlsens into his sole ownership. This was partly funded by the Property Trusts acquiring the trading company’s portfolio of properties in exchange for units in the Property Trusts and cash.

“The others weren’t active in the business, and sensibly and wisely wanted to invest in their own individual futures, which were all different. This was very healthy for everyone,” John explains.

“It was a very agreeable transaction based upon fair consideration and we all remain on the friendliest of terms as family members. These family members continue to be very significant unit holders in the Property Trusts which own approximately 37 per cent of the 88 odd Dahlsens trading sites,” he adds.

Extending the family involvement into a fifth generation, John’s son Geoff and nephew Jamie are now integrally involved in the day-to-day leadership of the business.

Geoff works as Chief Executive Officer based out of Sydney which enables him to focus on growing the northern business, particularly in New South Wales where the market is fragmented and there is considerable opportunity to roll out the Dahlsen model. Melbourne-based Jamie, who is a son of John’s brother Bill, is General Manager of IT and Innovation and is responsible for Digital Transformation.

Several members of the Dahlsen family have devoted their working lives to the business.

“We have been very fortunate that our family members have had complementary, but not competing, skills which has led to great teamwork,” John says.

At this year’s family celebration in Bairnsdale, John paid particular tribute to the enormous contribution made to the company by his brother Bill in Operations and General Management and cousin Bryan Dahlsen in Accounting, Finance and Risk Management.

John is confident that that his succession planning has ensured that the business will be in good hands into the future with Geoffrey and Jamie’s involvement. “I’ve set it up in a way that it will last at least one more generation,” he states.

Approximately four years ago, John Dahlsen made the decision to take a half-step back and welcomed former NAB Chief Financial Officer, Richard McKinnon as his Co-Chairman of the business.

“This was done to give my son Geoffrey the necessary space to do his job as CEO,” John says.

Dahlens had already been benefiting from the input of an external Advisory Board for several years prior to that appointment. Richard’s colleagues on the Advisory Board are former Professor of Analytics and Dean of the Melbourne Business School, Professor Jenny George and NAB’s ex-Chief Information and Technology Director, Gavin Slater.

“These talented and experienced professionals have made an extremely important contribution and continue to bring great insights to the business,” John comments.

“They’ve taught us a lot, and in turn, we’ve taught them as well. It’s been a very successful journey that we’ve all taken.”

From its inception and throughout its proud history, the Dahlsens business has always been about its people and supporting the communities in which it operates.

JOHN DAHLSEN

“It’s just accepted that whenever there is fire, flood or drought, we’ll be amongst the first in there with whatever we can do to assist without fanfare or public disclosure. That’s just part of the DNA of the family and the company and all our staff,” John says.

It is impossible to calculate how many thousands of homes and commercial premises throughout Gippsland which stand today would have been constructed using materials from Dahlsens.

John can empathise with anyone who has inconvenienced by the current timber shortages, which have caused considerable delays on housing construction work this year.

“This has placed huge pressure on our staff, which is of great concern to us,” John says.

“We are about the third biggest consumer of pine in Australia through our stores and roof truss plants,” he reveals.

“We’re having to manage our pine on a day-to-day basis, but fortunately we have very respectful and cooperative relationships with our suppliers. As a result, they have been giving us preferred status which has enabled us to keep our roof truss plants operating through the crisis. Most of our plants are operating from 5.30 in the morning until 10 o’clock at night.” John explains that the shortage was sparked by a skyrocketing rise in the international price of timber.

“The companies that supply into Australia are instead supplying other countries where they can get much bigger prices,” he says.

“In Australia, our production capacity has been flattened and needs to be expanded. This crisis will last for some time and we’re not too sure when it will end. Steel and almost every other building product has increased in price, but the one that is causing the most problems is timber, because it has the combined impact of a price increase and supply shortage, whereas the other products are affected predominantly by an increase in price only. It’s making things very tough on all builders, large and small.”

Despite this current temporary hindrance, Dahlsens will continue to prosper into the future whilst retaining its lifelong Gippsland ties.

“The business now in the hands of the next generation under the leadership of Geoffrey and Jamie should continue to grow, probably at a faster rate than at present,” John predicts.

“But East Gippsland will always remain the heart and soul of the business,” he promises.