GARAGE TO GLOBAL ARB AT.50

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN A SUBURBAN MELBOURNE GARAGE TO A $2.5 BILLION GLOBAL EMPIRE, ARB HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE ADVENTURE. RON MOON VISITS ARB HQ TO CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF ENGINEERING INNOVATION, RUGGED RESILIENCE AND AUSSIE MANUFACTURING SUCCESS.

- RON MOON

ARB was founded in 1975 after Anthony Ronald Brown (Tony) returned from a trip to Cape York in his Land Rover Series I. Witnessing the punishment dished out by the rough roads and tracks of the time, he saw a clear need for stronger, more reliable accessories for 4x4 vehicles. Back home, he got to work in his garage, using a homemade pipe bender and a 130A stick welder to build roof racks and bullbars.

Within a year, Tony had moved into a small factory in Ringwood, Victoria, and hired his first employee, John van den Eynden. John would remain with the company until the 2020s, eventually managing ARB’s Thailand operation from its inception in 2006 until his retirement.

Around that time, Tony’s brother Roger joined the business, followed a few months later by their other brother, Andy. All three were hands-on and mechanically minded. As Andy recalled with a laugh, “I had a small workshop back then and we used to buy secondhand VW Beetles out of the Melbourne Trading Post on Thursday mornings, fix them up, give them a coat of paint and sell them on the weekend through The Age classifieds.”

By the time Andy joined his brothers in 1977, they had established their second dedicated factory in Ringwood. Their first multi-unit order soon followed – 10 front bars with wheel carriers to suit VW Kombis, commissioned by Sunshine Campervans. In July that year, ARB Engineering was officially formed.