Australian Welding June 2022

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FEATURE STORY

HILTON: DYNAMIC. DIVERSIFIED. PROGRESSIVE. Precision engineered sheet metal products since 1976

Established in Dandenong in 1976, Hilton Manufacturing provides a complete product service, from inception right through to completion. Hilton’s experience and expertise extends across all aspects of sheet metal manufacturing, including the rolling, forming, bending, pressing, folding, CNC routing, machining, welding and polishing of aluminium, mild steel and stainless steel. With a focus on quality control, lean manufacturing principles and robotics, Hilton is poised for even more success.

Since the company’s inception in 1976, Hilton Manufacturing has set the highest of standards in precision engineering and manufacturing quality, living by their values of Dynamic, Diversified and Progressive. Husband and wife team, Margo and Tom Hartley, established Hilton Manufacturing in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s south-east. According to Todd Hartley (Managing Director, Hilton Manufacturing), “My mum and dad started the business in a little 300m2 shed in Hilton Street in Dandenong—that’s where the company name comes from.” A tool maker by trade, Tom already had a diverse range of experience under his belt. He’d completed his apprenticeship at Repco in Richmond, and worked at International Harvester and a couple of other sheet metal businesses. “Tom had just been retrenched from another sheet metal company, and he thought ‘bugger this, I’ll go and start up my own business’. And so

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that’s how Hilton started. Our first workshop was across the road from International Harvester—they soon became our first client. From there, the company just grew. We stayed in Hilton Street for about five years, before moving into a larger premises to better service our growing client base,” said Todd. “In the late 1980s when the recession hit, we were purely a truck component manufacturer. We realised that we couldn’t just rely on one industry. So, we looked at expected market trends for the next 20 to 30 years. Baby Boomers would be retiring and either buying a caravan and travelling across the country, or going into a nursing home. So, we approached a caravan assembler and became their preferred supplier for sheet metal, and followed a similar scenario for manufacturing hospital beds.”

Photos: Hilton’s main 20,000m2 headquarters and manufacturing plant in Dandenong, Melbourne.


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