Pedders celebrates 70th anniversary
'No bull' suspension giant dates back to a humble welding workshop in 1950The Aussie aftermarket suspension specialist most famous for its 'No bull!' marketing slogan, is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2020.
The history of Pedders, a family-run business which now includes 130 outlets with the friendly 'red bull' signage dotted around Australia as well as overseas, has its origins in 1950 when Roy Pedder (the grandfather of current Pedders' managing director Mark Pedder and marketing director Scott Pedder) ran a welding workshop in the Melbourne suburb of Carnegie that included reconditioning of worn shock absorbers.
Roy's son Ron joined the business in 1966, at age 16, when one of his first jobs was painting reconditioned shock absorbers in Pedders' now signature bright red paint. After various other roles Ron took over the business in 1972, after which Pedders began making its own line of shock absorbers.
“I was very fortunate that my father allowed me at a young age to take control of the business in the early 1970s,” says Ron, who is today Chairman of Pedders.
After opening its first franchise in Frankson in 1982, the Pedders' retail network expanded far and wide, and now offers more than 120,00 catalogue items along with various fitting, weighing and testing services.
Pedders' international expansion began in 2000 when it opened its first overseas distributor in Thailand, followed not long after with a manufacturing facility in China (after a dedicated Melbourne production facility was opened in the late 1990s).
Pedders aired the first of its memorable 'No Bull' and 'Dr.Shock' TV ads during the 1980s, along with the introduction of the catchy 28-point underbody safety check (just 14 bucks back then!).
Never far from the limelight, other eye-catching marketing initiatives from high-profile motorsport sponsorship and participation to big-ticket giveaways followed, while the company has also led the charge in offering practical solutions to towing and payload 'overweight' issues including a world-first online Weight Matrix program.
As well as a leading aftermarket supplier, Pedders' red shocks and coils can also be found under thousands of JTECH suspended Jayco caravans that have rolled off the Dandenong, Victoria production line since 2014.
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