At the age of 16, Chris Debono Snr started work at a small business to complete his boilermaker apprenticeship. Meanwhile Chris’ brother, Anthony Debono, also began work at the age of 16 with a three-year boilermaker apprenticeship in Maribyrnong, Victoria at the Ordinance factory.
On 19 April 1983, Chris and Anthony’s father built a small factory in Sunshine. It was then decided that they would go out on their own and so the two brothers started off making bodies, trays and truck modifications.
Anthony began by helping out after work and on weekends to finish the first two years of his apprenticeship, and for his third year, he transferred to complete his final year at what was now Chris’s Body Builders (CBB).
At the time CBB was building combinations specifically for Pridham’s Transport as its major customer. CBB only had two boilermakers at this stage, and with Chris being one of them, this kept the two brothers busy as they built the business from the ground up. However, with a goal in sight to build a high-quality product, all of Chris’ and Anthony’s profits were invested back into the business to grow.
1985 saw business pick up for CBB, which led to it employing its first apprentice, Kyle. Not long after, Chris’ friend had a son, Paul, who was looking for work. Paul was hired as an apprentice and still works for CBB today, 33 years later.
As the business continued to grow, four additional workers were put on to meet the demand and it was decided to focus soley on tipper bodies. One of the first of those workers, Fu, is also still apart of the CBB team today.
Fast forward 10 years into the business, CBB outgrew its factory and purchased a bigger property which boasted a 2,500-square-metre shed. This was a big step up in size, and the new facility would allow CBB to paint, fit hydraulics and do all of the fit-out work in dedicated areas. Years later, CBB got the opportunity to purchase land on either side of the current location in Sunshine, which now houses the company’s body plant, chassis plant and painting shed.
In 2018 CBB announced a strategic partnership as part of its growth and expansion strategy, which saw it sell a stake in the company to a group of six Australian investors. At the time, Chris Snr said this would secure the future of one of Australia’s few remaining home grown and operated manufacturing businesses.
“After 35 years in the business, it is time to set our sights on the future amid a rapidly changing manufacturing industry,” he said. “It is for this reason that our new partnership is great news for our customers, partners and the wider transport industry.”
It was around this period that Chris Jnr took over as CEO and began to focus on growing the CBB product offering, increasing market penetration and service offerings to transform the business into what it is today.
Chris Snr’s other son, Ben Debono, was also employed after completing his apprenticeship – starting out repairing trailers and building aluminium bodies. Ben now works as the Production Manager overseeing CBB’s entire manufacturing process.
Today, in 2023, CBB now caters to a wide variety of sectors within the transport industry all over Australia, from civil all the way through to agriculture. CBB has also bolstered its offerings to its customers by providing onsite repair facilities, online parts sales and dedicated aftersales support.
CBB has played an integral part in innovation within the transport industry by pushing the envelope to gain increased productivity benefits for its clients through cutting edge design.
“We were the first to market with a three-axle PBS-approved truck and dog in Victoria in 2008 and we’ve been growing in the high productivity scheme ever since,” Chris Snr says. “Now, about 70-80 per cent of the work we do is PBS combinations.”
With the capability to build three-axle to six-axle tipping dog trailers, semi tip trailers, sliders, tip over axles, jack knife B-doubles and converter dollies, CBB has continued to expand its product range over the last 40 years to now become a one stop tipper shop.
As CBB and the Debono family celebrate 40 years of operations this month, the company reflects on its ability to solidify its manufacturing prowess and the reputation it has built for quality trailer combinations. With its focus now set on the future, CBB is preparing for another 40 years of proudly built bodies.
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