John Wright

JOHN WRIGHT was born in Alphington, Melbourne in 1945. He became a boilermaker but loved machinery so also worked operating road plant machinery and trucks. By 1970, John yearned to be his own boss. With the support of his wife Irene, he bought a TK300 Bedford 30m3 van with a contract delivering new furniture around Melbourne. Business was good and in 1975 a new Isuzu 58m3 van was purchased to create a service to Canberra. John drove and established the Canberra service himself.

After purchasing a third truck, a Fiat 160NC 58m3, and employing drivers John loaded and unloaded the trucks in Melbourne. Later Brisbane became the main service and 1978 the Isuzu was traded on a new LB81 Scania. John formed a partnership in 1978 with Jim Lay giving the business a total of six vans. They leased a depot and Furniture Freighters Queensland was registered. With rapid growth, a purpose built depot was leased in Braeside with dock height facilities for five semi pans. They converted to semi-pantechnicons and were so busy they employed sub-contractors. The company earned the reputation of a reliable damage free service specialising in new furniture transport and distribution. In 1982 a computer program was custom built for the company, linking the interstate depots, recording inventory, freight costing, invoicing, manifesting and the ability to track freight. It was a first in the furniture removalist industry. At client request service was extended Australia wide.

During the 1990 economic downturn Jim Lay retired. John's wife Irene joined the company taking over office management and payroll. John continued managing the business operations, taking over the Brisbane and Perth depots, and changing the name to Furniture Freighters Australia. He also converted to container freight. In 1995 two company N10 Volvos were replaced with S-line Internationals. By then he had several permanent sub-contractors, 30 long serving employees, 14 trucks and 35 containers servicing Australia's leading furniture manufacturers, retailers and importers. In 2001 he was awarded the prestigious Australian Achiever award. He finally sold out in 2002 after 32 continuous years in the industry.

With experience building their own homes John and Irene went into building and landscaping for some years before retiring to travel, go fishing and tour Australia in their Landcruiser and offroad caravan.