Gorski is a well-known manufacturer of tipping trailers and truck bodies based in the suburb of Somerton within Victoria.
The business was established in 1975 by Ken Gorski, and is now led by his children Timothy, Jeremy, Amelie and her husband, Paul, as the company approaches a milestone of 50 years of operations.
For many years, Gorski has been primarily using SSAB’s Hardox material. As Amelie recalls, she and her father initially met the SSAB team in the early 2000s and from there, Gorski became SSAB’s first tipper customer in Melbourne.
“We started buying Hardox as one of the first body builders in the country,” she says. “I was selling all units at that time with Dad, and so we spent the next year educating our customers on this new type of plate as it made its way on our trailers.”
Since then, Gorski has been using Hardox 450 for 100 per cent of its steel builds. The company manufactures in excess of 550 units per annum, 400 of which are manufactured with 5mm, 6mm and 8mm Hardox 450 wear plate. The remaining trailers are made with aluminium.
In having such a large product output, Gorski General Manager, Paul Baker, says it’s essential that the business has a material it can rely on.
“When we’re building the volumes that we do, we need to be comfortable that what we’re putting into the field has been tested, proven and will stand up to what our market demands,” he says. “Hardox 450 is our go-to product and it will be for the foreseeable future.”
Gorski was just recently approved to be a SSAB Hardox In My Body member.
Having incorporated Hardox into its operations since it arrived in the Australian market, Gorski has consistently valued the robust product while embracing the exceptional strength and quality that comes with it. Now, it can display that to the market through its new allegiance with SSAB.
“It’s a pretty big deal for us and for them,” says SSAB Regional Sales Manager, Ryan Sanders. “The Hardox In My Body program introduces Gorski as brand ambassadors, and it has just strengthened our relationship even more.”
The Hardox In My Body program is a quality membership made for manufacturers with a drive to aim higher and make their customers more competitive. All members are thoroughly assessed prior to joining, and once accepted earn the right to display the Hardox In My Body logo on their trailers.
While the process of becoming a member may be stringent, Paul says it has been worth it for Gorski.
“The services and support that we’ve received from SSAB have been pretty good,” he says. “They’ve given us access to custom plate sizes from the mills, so we can get better finishes and quality on what we do. From that, we also get gains through manufacturing processes because we can build trailers faster with less people.”
To become a Hardox In My Body member, trailer builders need to be exclusively using Hardox in a particular product that they manufacture, and Gorski ticked this box.
“It’s a pretty rigorous process,” Ryan says. “You must be utilising Hardox only, and then that enables you to join the network for that particular product. Gorski manufactures a wide range of products. So, we start off with one specific product and then we continue that through the rest of the customer’s product program.”
By successfully joining the program, customers gain access to an exclusive range of benefits that would not typically be available to the general public.
“This includes smarter ways of procurement, extra aftersales support, technical support, assistance with upgrading and access to developing products like Hardox 500 Tuf,” Ryan says. “It just gives them that closer working relationship with us.”
These advantages are already applied throughout Gorski, with the trailer builder trialling Hardox 500 Tuf wear plate on its combinations.
500 Tuf is the latest addition to the Hardox range, and with exceptional strength, hardness and toughness, it combines the best properties of Hardox 450 and Hardox 500 into the one product.
“We have touched on the Hardox 500 grade in some of our heavy-duty applications,” Paul says. “There’s multiple units out there with it, and it’s working for us. So, we have been prototyping it but we haven’t rolled it out across our whole range yet.”
Ultimately, by using SSAB steel – and more specifically Hardox 450 for such a long period of time – Amelie says the Gorski name has become synonymous with quality.
“We get product consistency through a material that is formable,” she says. “We are still using Hardox steel from when it came to Australia, and that speaks for itself.”
Paul agrees, explaining that by choosing SSAB’s Hardox 450, Gorski unlocks the reliability of working with Swedish steel.
“We believe our trailers represent quality when they have the Hardox name on them,” he says. “Our motto is ‘built tough’, and that aligns with the quality, technical support and processes of SSAB who is a one-stop shop for us.
“SSAB is ingrained into our business throughout product developments, designs and future orders. They’re not just a supplier, they are a partner in everything that we do.”
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