HAYMAN REESE CELEBRATES 70 Years

THE FAMOUS AUSSIE TOWING BRAND HITS A MILESTONE BIRTHDAY, CELEBRATING SEVEN DECADES AT THE FOREFRONT OF TOWING TECHNOLOGY AND SOLUTIONS

- JUSTIN WALKER

THE tow bar. You see it everywhere in Australia, and more than likely that tow bar attached to the back of that four-wheel drive wagon or ute will have a famous Aussie brand name stamped on it: Hayman Reese. The brand is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and, for most of us, it is like it has always been prevalent in the local motoring scene, to the point where the name is literally a byword for a tow bar. It’s amazing really, when you think of where it all began …

A BEGINNING YOU’D NEVER GUESS

IT’S all about happenstance, coincidence and wanting to help out a mate when it comes to the beginnings of an aftermarket brand that is now an icon of the Australian motoring scene. It is an origin story that is, if not quirky, certainly memorable and amazing rolled in to one.

The quirky part? Before Eric Hayman answered a mate’s request for a tow bar, he worked making bicycle spokes in South Melbourne – yep, that’s right, pushy spokes. No, we can’t see the correlation either, but we (like millions of towing Aussies) sure are glad that Hayman’s original two tow bars (one went to his mate, the other he sold at a country show) soon became a whole lot more. The successful sale (and the knowledge there was an untapped market out there) changed Hayman’s direction of work, seeing the establishment of a business that has expanded – and innovated, along the way – its product line and is now celebrating seven decades at the forefront of towing technology.

FROM ‘JUST TOWING’ TO SOMETHING MORE