In the transport industry, we often see multi-generation companies. Father-and-son teams are not uncommon in in many industries.
However, when a team spans three generations, and is proven highly successful across three continents, we have to stand up and listen.
That’s how it is with Chicks Scrap Metals in Western Australia. The story of Chicks started in the tough streets of West London in the 1930s when Billy Cooper kicked off a scrap metal business with one van and a vision to build a scrap metal empire.
Billy was a boxer back then and because of his light weight his mates called him Chicken, or Chick for short.
Hence his business became Chicks Scrap Metals. The business became a big success, and Billy saw a way to get out of the rugged streets of London and take his family to the greener pastures of Australia.
Billy sent his wife to get the visas for Australia. The story goes that she rode a bicycle to get the visas, but the Australian embassy was a long way to ride. The South African embassy was a lot closer, so she popped in there and came home with visas for South Africa.
Billy set up Chicks Scrap Metals in Cape Town, South Africa with his son, and another Billy, and the company grew from there. Chicks expanded to many locations in South Africa and became a huge success. In fact, it became the biggest scrap metal business in South Africa.
Billy Cooper II saw an opportunity to finally get the family to Australia and so he sold out to a big multi-national and moved the family to Perth where he planned to settle down with his wife and three sons, the eldest of which is named, you guessed it, Billy.
The Cooper family finally moved to Australia in 1995, and after many different jobs, uni degrees and other commitments, Billy III finally decided he wanted to go into the scrap business like his father and grandfather had done.
The old Chicks truck has close to a million kilometres on the clock and is still going strong.“I was living in the Cook Islands managing for foreign exchange business,” said Billy. “I moved back here, and I thought ‘Ive gotta do something’ so I said to my dad ‘I want to do scrap metal’. We spoke about it, and I said I want to start with nothing. I want a truck, a bin and a warehouse, and that was it.
“At the start it’s your door-trade that keeps you going. You can’t just start and have a hundred bins on your site, so I wanted to work out if that was going to be enough to keep it going.
“My brothers were stuck in Melbourne during Covid, so I got started, and they eventually came over here [to Perth] and we got going seriously.”
Chicks is now a thriving business here in Australia, and with Billy III, together with his two brothers Richard and Stefan, is looking forward to big expansion plans in the near future.
In fact, when we were there, we visited the new Chicks facility in Wattleup south of Perth. The new facility will cover 10,000 square metres and have a weighbridge, storage facilities and the ability to process the scrap metal and containerise it for export and recycling.
“We all bring something different to the business,” said Billy.
“Stefan has his marketing and graphic design background, Richard is very hands-on and has his Bachelor of Commerce and is very mechanically-minded, and I’m a great delegator,” he laughed.
Richard’s wife Samantha is also in the business along with the boys’ dad Bill.
To assist with the expansion of the business, Chicks has chosen Hino as their truck brand.
Richard, the brother in charge of all things mechanical, told us that their first Hino, an old 2008 500 Series Wide Cab with skip bin loader body that they bought from another scrap company in Kalgoorlie, now has nearly a million kilometres on the clock and is still going strong.
“The truck had already had a pretty hard life when we got it,” Richard said. “And we’ve put a few hundred thousand kilometres on it, so it proves the toughness and reliability of the Hino brand,” he added.
As the company has grown it became necessary to get another truck to haul the metal around WA, so the boys rang Bunbury Hino and secured a new 500 Series Wide Cab FM2632 6×4. This is the top of the 500 Series tree and features the big 9.0-litre A09C engine that is rated to 3230hp and a hefty 1275Nm of torque.
The engine is a turbocharged and intercooled six-cylinder, overhead cam, direct injection item that can stack up against anything on the market.
This is mated to the Allison six-speed fully-automatic gearbox which the Cooper boys say is a great feature of the truck.
The transmission features double overdrive with fourth being direct drive, with fifth 0.750 and sixth a tall 0.653:1. A rear axle ratio of 5.857 gives the big Hino an engine speed of just 2010rpm at 100km/h.
“Both of our trucks are skip lifters,” said Richard. “They’re the biggest skip lifters we could get; one’s a 12-tonne skip lifter and the one on the new Hino is a 16-tonne skip lifter by HSR, one of the greatest on the market.”
“We got the new truck from Bunbury Hino who were great. It went straight from Japan to Sydney where it was fitted with the HSR gear, and then it came back to Perth where it was fitted with some more gear (cameras, radios, window tint etc) and got its distinctive wrap, and was then put straight to work.
“The guys at Bunbury put the whole deal together and they were great,” said Richard. “We’ll definitely be going back to them.”
Asked what they like about the new truck, the boys said that the auto was a hit. “Our first truck was a Road Ranger manual and it was difficult to get drivers for that. This Allison auto is a dream,” Bill said.
“It’s also very powerful. We got the extra powerful engine on purpose. The lifting gear is also very powerful,” said Richard. “It lifts up bins that our previous trucks couldn’t lift.
“It’s got a very comfortable ride too. Its regular driver is really happy with it.”
The distinctive wrap on the new Hino is by Go Graphics, Beaconsfield WA.The truck will regularly pick up and deliver bins of nine cubic metres to 12 cubic metres. The bins are loaded with all manner of scrap metal and the sites are diverse so the 6X4 with cross-locks comes in handy.
Bill Senior said the big engine with high power and torque makes a difference. “Our driver says that whether it has an empty bin, or if he’s got a loaded 16-tonne bin on the back, he doesn’t feel it. The truck just cruises along.”
Asked if they’re going to get any more Hinos, the Chicks boys said that when it comes time to update, it’ll certainly be Hino.
“We’d definitely add more Hinos. I wouldn’t see us going with anyone but Hino,” said Richard.
“Especially having a truck that’s now pushing a million kilometres, that speaks for itself. And in the scrap metal business they really get a workout,” he added.
“Our plan for the business is that we’ve started developing our second scrap yard, and there will be more. With the growth we’re expecting, we’d definitely be adding to our fleet, and we’d go with Hino.
“It’s a smart business choice to stay with the same brand so everyone knows it. And I think we’ve made our choice now,” said Richard. “We’ll be sticking with Hino.”
Truck specs
Engine: A09C-US
Configuration: In-line six-cylinder turbocharged, intercooled, overhead cam, direct injection
Displacement: 8.866 litres
Power: 320hp (235kW)
Torque: 1275Nm
Transmission: Allison six-speed automatic
GVM: 26,000kg
GCM: 36,500kg
Fuel: 200 litres
AdBlue: 59 litres
Brakes: Full air, dual circuit, S-cam
Safety: Drivers air bag, vehicle stability control with ASR, cruise control, ABS, ECE R-29 cab, reversing camera, LDW, traction control and more.
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