From 17 service station owners in 1974, to over 28,000 Members and over 2,000 Preferred Suppliers across Australia and New Zealand in 2024. Capricorn has a lot to celebrate, and even more to look forward to.
The year was 1974. The Holden Kingswood, the top selling car in Australia at the time, came with either an inline 6-cylinder or a V8 engine. The most advanced technology it featured was Holden’s Tri-Matic semi-automatic transmission.
Cars were simpler back then. It was a time before catalytic converters, electronic fuel injection, anti-lock braking and power steering. The technology was a world away from the adaptive cruise control, advance driver assistance systems and electric vehicles of today.
But that didn’t mean servicing was straightforward, nor that running a business in the automotive aftermarket was easy. In fact, for a group of 17 Golden Fleece service station owners in Western Australia, the barriers to running successful, profitable businesses were very real.
The power of the cooperative
One of those barriers was the tight control the WA Spare Parts Association held over its members, which meant service stations were buying parts at very disadvantageous rates compared to others in the industry. Dissatisfied with the unfairness of the status quo, they decided to take matters into their own hands. In the early 1970s, they formed a joint buying group to pool their resources and increase their buying power.
“We operated on a fairly loose, but successful, system,” said Brian Tulloch, one of the original 12, in an interview in 2004. “It was not easy initially, and there was a great deal of resistance from suppliers.”
But the strategy worked, and it was soon clear there would be even greater advantages if the group were bigger and bolder. In December 1974, this informal group voted to create Capricorn Society.
50 years of growth
The first big supplier to come on board was Lucas, who supplied batteries, filters, spark plugs and other common parts.
“Lucas were an exceptionally good supplier and through our service stations using them, they were able to take a great deal of business away from their own competitors,” Tulloch explained. “The result was that this gradually produced other suppliers who wanted to do business with our group and that started a slow, but snowballing effect.”
Capricorn Society was finding its feet and independent workshops were starting to see the strength the cooperative offered. Ten years after we started, Capricorn had more than 300 Members. Over the next four decades, we would continue to grow and evolve, expanding across Australia and New Zealand, and into new areas, like business protection and financing. In 1987, annual turnover was around A$14 million. By 2004, Capricorn had 9,000 Members and an annual turnover of A$500 million. Today, Capricorn has over 28,000 Members who spent a total of A$3.4 billion with our Preferred Suppliers last financial year.
So, while the cars of 2024 might be a lot more complicated than the cars of 1974, it’s clear independent workshops have decided Capricorn makes doing business easier.
Celebrating 50 Years Strong
The success of Capricorn was never guaranteed. But what we are today is a testament not just to the vision of the original 17 and the hard work of all those who have followed, but to the value Members like you continue to see in the power of working together. We believe Capricorn has survived and flourished because we have spent half a century listening to and meeting the needs of Members. Your success is our success. And we believe that’s something worth celebrating!
For the next six months, Capricorn will be celebrating the ways we’ve been a part of the successes of our Members, Preferred Suppliers and the wider automotive community over the last 50 years.
Keep an eye on our website, our Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, Ignition magazine and your email inbox for lots of fun and fascinating content, including a few trips down memory lane and reflections from some industry legends.
Share your Capricorn memories and win
We’re inviting you to contribute your memories, too!
If you have any memories or memorabilia from the past five decades of Capricorn, we’d love to see them. We want to hear how Capricorn has helped you build a stronger, better business. Submit your memories and you’ll be in the running to win a $1,000 voucher to throw a celebration of your own.
Entries will be used to celebrate the milestone, so make sure you keep an eye on our social media channels and 50 Years Strong website to see some blasts from the past!
So, if you’ve got a box in the back of a cupboard or a drawer in an old filing cabinet where some Capricorn memories might be lurking, now’s the time to dig them out and share them with us! You can use the QR code on this page to submit your entries and view the competition terms and conditions.
