South Australian Brush Co. from 1892 rises and falls in 20th Century; survives as Sabco and the Hayco giant in Asia

Staff outside the South Australian Brush Company factory opened in Flinders Street, Adelaide, in 1930. Its heritage lived on into the 21st Century on Sabco brand products.
Main image courtesy Hayco

Sabco, started in 1892 as the South Australian Brush Company by William Hay, is a brand that survived into the 21st Century and had a family spinoff with Hayco, a company that, though Asia, became one of the world’s biggest brush makers.

South Australian Brush Company opened as a small business with hand-crafted products. With growth, it became more automated at a factory in Flinders Street, Adelaide, in 1930. After World War II, it moved  to a former munitions factory at Hendon.

Sabco expansion in the 1970s saw it take over century-old Melbourne broom and brush company Zevenboom (1970) and Melbourne-based Dawn Plastics (1979) to start a garden products division. A South Australian competitor, Lincoln Brush Company, making paint brushes for more than 30 years, was bought in 1981.

Sabco’s innovation and quality has made it a national brand but, in 1993, it was bought out of receivership by Tomlin Industries. In 2003, Sabco was acquired by HWI. Four years later, Libman USA took up 50% ownership, increased to 100% in 2009.

William Hay’s grandson Donald had left the family company in 1983. Donald Hay dropped out of St Peter’s College due to dyslexia but he had a solid grasp of the big picture. He saw Asia’s rise as a global manufacturer.

In 1983, he went to Hong Kong with an $80,000 nest egg to start Hayco, focusing on the family speciality of toilet brushes and brooms. He began manufacturing in China, helped by three female Chinese partners and a handful of backers. He sold brushes back to Sabco and quickly started exporting products to the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Hayco grew to 6,000 employees making a diverse range of products that still included brooms and toilet brushes. Hayco opened an injection-moulding factory in China led by a small but dedicated team. His empire was shipping 200 million items a year to more than 60 countries.

Donald Hay’s son Christopher took over as chief executive of Hayco.