Bradken Limited

Founded in 1922, Bradken Limited (ASX: BKN) is a global manufacturer and supplier of differentiated consumable and capital products to the mining, transport, general industrial and contract manufacturing markets. As a leading heavy engineering company Bradken can manufacture fully machined cast iron and steel products from a mass of 0.5 kg to over 25 tonnes. Bradken employs 4,800 people worldwide and has a global footprint with 54 manufacturing, sales and service facilities throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, the United States of America, Canada, South America, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index, code BKN.

Between 1919-1920 two BHP steelworks employees, Leslie Bradford (General Manager) and Jim Kendall (Chief Mechanical Engineer) and a group of their friends backed a racehorse called ‘Jack Findlay' who completed a remarkable sequence of five wins. With each win the group rolled-over their bets and by 24 January 1920 they had won a small fortune pledging their winnings to start a steel foundry business.

On 28 April 1920, Bradford and Kendall used their winnings to establish the Alloy Steel Syndicate and build a steel foundry in Alexandria, Sydney to take advantage of what they saw as an untapped potential for industrial growth. The syndicate was officially incorporated as Bradford Kendall Ltd on 20 March 1922.

In December 1974 the company officially changed its name to Bradken Consolidated Limited. Between 1981 and 2000, the Bradken business was a division of Australian National Industries Limited (ANI), an under performing industrial conglomerate. ANI was taken over by Smorgon Steel in 2000 and broken up. The Bradken casting business was sold to private equity firm CHAMP and subsequently refloated on the ASX in August 2004.