Company History

Brambles was named after Walter Bramble , the company’s original founder, who migrated to Sydney, Australia from England in 1858. In 1875, at the age of 18, Walter Bramble established a butchering business that transported the meat to customers by boat or horse and cart. In the next few years, the business expanded geographically to the port town of Newcastle and operationally to transport and logistics. In 1925, W E Bramble & Sons was formed to deliver transport and logistics services.

Following its listing on the stock exchange in 1954, Brambles bought CHEP (Commonwealth Handling Equipment Pool), a term describing pallets and other transportation assets that the US Army left in Australia after World War II, from the Australian government and officially entered the pooling solutions business. CHEP remained the major brand name that Brambles operated under until this day.

In the next four decades, Brambles expanded globally to Europe, Asia Pacific, South Africa and North America through a number of joint ventures and acquisitions . In December 2006, the company unified its dual-listed company structure between Brambles Industries Limited, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), and Brambles Industries plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSX), to form a single Australian holding company, Brambles Limited, that listed on the ASX only.

The dawn of the new millennium marked a shift in the company’s strategic direction where the group was streamlined through several divestitures including Cleanaway (waste disposal), Wreckair (equipment hire) and Recall (storage). The completion of the IFCO divestiture in 2019 further streamlined Brambles’s operations which now focused on the company’s core pallet and container expertise. Through Brambles Digital, the company also invested in expanding its capabilities in data analytics and innovations in response to increasing customer demands for innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective supply chain solutions.