Pryda is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year at the same time as its founder Ray Turner turns 90. Source: Timberbiz
Initially the business was based in Turner’s home in Napier but then moved to Gloucester Street, Taradale and finally to 75 Niven Street where the New Zealand operations are still located today.
As the business grew in the 1960s, Turner tried a couple of joint overseas ventures – one in South Africa, which soon stopped once the political situation there deteriorated.
There was another in Fiji where he was supplying Pryda products to hardware outlets.
In 1970, Turner sent eldest son Daryl to establish Pryda in Australia.
At first it was located in an old bluestone Collingwood pub and then in 1974 at Clayton South, by January 1982 it moved to Healey Road, Dandenong and four years later it was registered as a company in Australia.
Pryda’s first Australian truss plant was established in 1972 in Adelaide and needed industry approval for its nailplates, built according to a standardised design developed by Melbourne engineer Jack Taylor, before they could be sold.
Several significant structural changes then occurred within Pryda, the first in 1986 when Ray Turner sold the company to the joint venture of Ajax McPhersons.
With Chris Rogers at the helm as managing director following Daryl Turner’s retirement, the sale signalled a series of mergers and takeovers that today sees Pryda a part of the international conglomerate Illinois Tool Works (ITW).
The first move was Ajax McPhersons purchasing the company before merging with Spurway Cooke to form Ajax Cooke.
In 1994 National Consolidated purchased the company and four years later Austrim – with former BTR Nylex CEO Alan Jackson in charge – took it over.
The ITW move, when it bought eight companies including Pryda from Austrim Nylex’s building products division, is 10 years old.
