Elbowroom History

Elbowroom – Bigger, Stronger and Safer

Pallet Racking; Shelving; and Storage Solutions, since 1973

Your product, your people and your ideas are our priority. Since 1973, we at Elbowroom have assisted our customers in Australia and abroad in their creation of safe and efficient storage solutions, delivering on their specific needs and budgets while enhancing their levels of performance and output.

 

Our Story – Since 1973

In 1973:

• Gunsynd syndicated as a stallion for $270,618 and retired to Kia Ora Stud;
• Clem Jones was Brisbane’s Lord Mayor during this period and he was also the Gabba cricket ground’s curator;
• I thought there was no such thing as a bad beer – some were just better than others.  Along comes Brisbane Bitter – myth busted!
• The  Mount Panorama Bathurst race distance was changed from 500 miles to 1,000 kilometres and the Ford Australia Racing Team won its final Bathurst-500/1000 event with Allan Moffat at the wheel of the number 9 Ford GT;
• During violent weather, the Cherry Venture was washed up on the beach just South of Double Island point on the Sunshine Coast;
• The Sydney Opera House was finally opened after its construction commencement in 1957;
• The tallest building in Brisbane was Emirates House at 119m with 24 floors, which in 2013 is dwarfed by the Infinity Building standing 249m with 81 levels;
• Brisbane was shocked into the realisation of a local underworld when 15 lost their lives in the deliberately lit Whiskey Au Go Go inferno;
• And the Rolling Stones returned to Australia for the first time since 1966, performing in Brisbane.

 In 1973:

The owner of Elbowroom, Mark Althaus, finished school and put his tool belt on, to start installing shelving and racking systems in his Dad’s business – Althaus Industries.  Since 1973 there have been many comings and goings, name changes, some glory times and some troubled times.

There have been many changes since those early years.  Our offered services and activities were many and varied.  We were not so much a recycling society as we were a refurbishment society.  Our industry products, like steel storage cupboards; metal shelving; pallet racking; metal lockers; compactus (mobile shelving), were bent back into shape, repainted with modern colours and reused by the original owners.  Back then, our installed pallet racking structures were mostly installed by men who climbed up the rack frames and then walked along beams upon a surface area of 2” (5cm) wide. These structures were seldom higher than 12’ (3.6m) and pallet racking was often left unanchored (to the floor).  What hasn’t changed is the desire to understand our customer’s expectations and to deliver on them.

Over the next 20 years or so, not only did our technology advance substantially, but we also made vast improvements in our focus on safety in terms of methods; equipment; training; and zero tolerance attitude.

Elbowroom has grown in all respects including employment opportunities; territory covered; sales turnover; resources; stock holdings; infrastructure and industry acknowledgement.

Now over 40 years later:

• Elbowroom is an industry leader;
• The storage systems designed and sold by Elbowroom are expertly designed to the highest standards and are genuinely endorsed by genuine engineers;
• Our documented and practised safety and installation methodologies are second to none;
• Pallet racking installations of around 11m (36’) high are commonplace and 30m (98’) high racks are becoming less occasional;
• Elbowroom’s own StorTite® mobile shelving systems are being sold and installed as far away as Cairo in Egypt;
• We no longer bend things back into shape.  We are environmentally engaged and we ensure unusable raw materials are appropriately recycled.

..and like us at Elbowroom, the Rolling Stones are still here and continuing to revisit some old and welcomed stages.