Bill Interview #2: History of Outdoor Connection

Bill Interview #2: History of Outdoor Connection

We sat down with Bill, the founder of Outdoor Connection, to find out how it kicked off.

Transcript:

It was called Kine Distributors in those days so that was simply because was operating he had been operating out of a house up in Kine street at Salisbury. We looked at it.. the dog the dog. 

History of Outdoor Connection

The business, we bought the business in 1984 and it was called Kine Distributors in those days. It operated out of a house up in Salisbury have the Kine Street and Salisbury so it was simply called Kine Distributors and they had moved to a small warehouse at Kelvin Grove. And we were looking for a business and having come from the farming operation I was looking for something to do with the outdoors. In many ways it was a, it was a, business not to do with-- it was to do with the outdoors but it wasn't outdoors. 

History of Outdoor Connection

But it was interesting from the point of view over the years I have an agricultural science degree and all the physics and chemistry and all those sort of things that I learned helped with the business. We were able to and also the farming I was conscious of physical pressures on things. So that gave us an advantage in the designing tents and thinking about what effect that winds would have on them and so forth. 

History of Outdoor Connection

And then when we came to tarpaulins and tents and so forth, how to the chemistry of how to stop the Sun deteriorating the fabrics so quickly and we got heavily involved in that with some of the companies and that's why our tarpaulins will last five years and our tents last a few years sitting out in the Sun. So yeah we had it there and then we moved, we moved over to Cooper's Plains and we rented a warehouse there and then about 17 or 18 years ago. We bought our current premises at Sumner Park and we've operated out of there and Sue of course helps me in the business and she's always been a great help. She's the calmer one of the two of us so she keeps things on a bit more of an even keel than I do. 

History of Outdoor Connection

But I've learned a bit in recent years and all our employees have been with us a long time. You know, Pauline our financial manager"s been with us 20 years nearly now I think it's 20 years. Sandy's been there for 12 to 14 years and we're lucky that you know people stay with us and we've got that core of people who are really good at what they do and can take any part of the business and handle it. So that's the business really it's about business is about people and you get people like Sandy who are passionate about camping. 

History of Outdoor Connection

So a lot of our Resort Range we had an idea originally of getting upright walls on dome tents and we started on how to do that and then Sandy took over that and developed what is now. The Resort Range and it's just an outstanding range of tents and I recommend it to anybody compare them to anything they're just a beautiful tent and very comfortable and made out a really good material so. And, and that's our business is making something a bit better all the time. The fabrics in our tents are better. 

History of Outdoor Connection

The fabrics in our tarpaulins are better. Anything we do, we try to, even if it costs an extra dollar, we try to try to make the quality better so the product will last and that saves a whole lot of landfill. There's too much product these days. Chairs, you know we spend days on chairs. We get a set of a chair we'll spend days sitting in it and messing with it and looking at the materials. And a lot of product these days comes in and people use it once or twice and it goes into landfill. So we've all the time we've tried not to have you know too much plastic packaging with too much stuff that is just no good and people use it once or twice and have to throw it away. 

History of Outdoor Connection

So that's that's our business really is making a better product that families can enjoy and feel secure so that's our reason to be. 

Back to blog