AS part of a plan to grow its Western Australian operations, AWN has added broker and auctioneer Tony Collins to its local wool team.
Mr Collins will be well-known to many woolgrowers, having worked as a broker calling on woolgrowers, mainly across the Great Southern and Upper Great Southern regions, for the Wool Agency Co Pty Ltd for the past 16 years.
In a 36-year career in the wool industry, Mr Collins' recent move across to AWN - which coincided with his 54th birthday - was only his third change of employer.
Born in Northam in 1968, he moved to Perth with his family at a young age and grew up in the suburbs where, like many others in the industry, he attended South Metropolitan TAFE Beaconsfield campus in Fremantle to do a wool classing course after finishing secondary school.
"In those days, getting your classer's certificate took 18 months," Mr Collins recalled.
"You did six months at TAFE, then you went on the road with a registered (shearing) contractor for six months then back to TAFE for six months.
"I did my six months' work experience I suppose you'd call it, with a contractor at York."
In 1986 Mr Collins started with what was then Wesfarmers Rural at its wool store and offices in Ireland St, South Fremantle.
"There's not many people who would know anything about the Wesfarmers Rural wool stores these days because they're long gone," he said.
Like many before and since, Mr Collins started as a classer in bulk class.
"Wesfarmers Rural then became Wesfarmers Dalgety then Wesfarmers Landmark and then Landmark," he recalled.
"I left during the Landmark ownership period when it was part of AWB."
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Mr Collins joined the Wool Agency in September 2006, a small privately-owned Beaconsfield wool broker.
"Back in those days, Wool Agency had a bigger team than it does now," Mr Collins said.
"My role was basically as a broker - client servicing, wherever there was a client, there was a visit."
His area generally spanned from Northam, York, Beverley and Brookton to Williams and Darkan.
"We did also have an outer fringe, from Badgingarra, Southern Cross and out Hyden way," he said.
Mr Collins had started auctioneering wool clips several years before and honed his auctioneering skills while with Wool Agency.
The COVID pandemic saw his travelling slow and his time in the office and wool store increased with the retirement of a colleague at Wool Agency.
So when approached by AWN he decided it was time for a change.
"AWN is still a young company in Western Australia and its growth in the last two and a half years since it started here has been astronomical," Mr Collins said.
"I've joined a small but ambitious team here which is exciting.
"I've done full circle - from a corporate-owned broking business, to small family-owned business and back to the corporate world and I've gone from being one of the youngest members of the team to now being one of the oldest."
Mr Collins' role at AWN will be to service his own clients and to help State wool and livestock manager Greg Tilbrook service some of his wool clients since he has recently taken on the additional livestock role.
"My objective initially is to maintain the AWN business and be an assistant to Greg so he can continue to focus on the growth of AWN," he said.
Mr Tilbrook welcomed Mr Collins to AWN and said he expected him to be "a great asset to the business".
"We are in growth mode so we need more good people with experience," Mr Tilbrook said.
