Leading Document Management under the name Recall since 1999

In 1999, Brambles, a multi-billion-dollar global support services company, brought together a worldwide network of document management companies under the Recall name. At the time, Recall was a US$10 million records management company. Today, we are a US$750 million lifecycle information management company.

“Brambles” takes its name from Walter Bramble, who arrived in Sydney with his English parents in 1858 when he was less than one-year-old.

In 1875, at the age of 18, Walter established a butcher’s business. He was a "cut up and deliver" butcher, meaning he transported the meat to customers by boat or horse and cart. Two years later, he had saved enough to move his business to the rapidly growing port town of Newcastle. Walter gradually expanded the transport part of his business, carrying meat and other produce for Newcastle's butchers and growers.

The diversification of Walter’s business was successful, and in 1890 W.E. Bramble & Sons began advertising with the slogan: Our Motto - Keep Moving. The company acquired two steam lorries in 1911, motor trucks during World War I, later became a truck and bus distributor in the 1920s…and, true to his word, kept moving.

Brambles continued to grow after World War II and became a modern, diversified company in the 1950s. In 1954, W.E. Bramble & Sons (Transport) Company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The current ticker symbol is BXB.

When World War II ended, the US Army left behind in Australia a huge amount of handling equipment - about 1,000 machines, including forklift trucks and cranes, and 60,000 wooden pallets.

The Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool (CHEP) thus was formed and became a highly successful government-owned enterprise. In the early 1950s, the Australian Government decided to sell it. Its acquisition by Bramble’s in 1958 was to have a huge impact on the business.

Bramble's changed its name to Brambles Industries Limited in 1958 and, in June of the following year, moved its head office from Newcastle to Sydney. From 1960 to 1990, Brambles reconfigured its business into principal divisions of industrial services, transport, materials handling and chemical/mechanical engineering.

Brambles' first acquisition outside of Australia in records management was made in 1991 when they bought the Vault Company in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

In 1992, Brambles recognized the potential within the records management industry. Its initial European acquisition was the UK company Security Archives plc, which provided secure document storage, collection and delivery services for records and media.

Further businesses in the US and Canada were acquired, beginning in 1995. Brambles quickly became the second largest operator in its field in the US and then made inroads into Asia and Europe – through both acquisitions and organic growth.

In November 2005, Brambles announced it would streamline the operating businesses and focus on CHEP and Recall. Over the next year, all the Cleanaway, Brambles Industrial Services and regional businesses were divested allowing Brambles to focus on its two core competencies.

To learn more, visit brambles.com.