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FIELD MARKETING STRIKEFORCE CELEBRATES 95 YEARS OF HISTORY FWith a timeline that dates back to the 1920s, Strikeforce has deep roots within Australia’s food brokerage industry. rom a director who served as one of Woolworths’ first supermarket managers (also the youngest, at the time) to grandfathers who were Australia’s first food brokers, there’s a reason Strikeforce is the nation’s largest retail services and shopper marketing agency today. Commemorating 95 years of business, Strikeforce AMC Directors Hugh Hamilton and Anthony King reflect on their family’s respective contributions to the retail marketing giant the company has become. “I keep Fountain Tomato Sauce’s original glass bottle from the ’50s on a shelf above my computer. It helps remind me that while some things change, other things don’t change at all,” reminisces Hugh Hamilton, as he shares a visual memento from the years he has spent working within the food retail industry. As the industry continued to evolve and take shape over the years, Strikeforce remained at the forefront of change, consistently adapting to grow with the industry. 1926 to the 1950s: dawn of food brokerage As a 100 per cent Australian owned company, with intuition built into the core of the business model, Strikeforce’s journey traces back to Sydney Harbour of 1926. The area was full of wholesalers with food being imported, much of it from Europe, to be taken to different warehouses. With Australia being an island on the other side of the world from this major source, shipments weren’t a fairly common occurrence, which often led to unpredictable stock and warehouses running under or over on a particular item. W.K. King (pictured in 1926, one of the founding Strikeforce families) saw an opportunity within the food brokerage industry. Taking note of warehouse stock levels, he would facilitate a quick spot deal between two wholesalers to correct stock discrepancies. His business model caught the attention of the Letona fruit canning company, known for its peaches, pears and apricots, which asked Mr King to personally represent the brand. The legend goes that he apparently sold a Hugh Hamilton’s Fountain Tomato Sauce bottle. year’s worth of commissions in his very first month. With this shift in his career, he moved on from balancing stocks to food brokering officially, potentially becoming one of the first ever food brokers in Australia. 1960 to 1970s: how food brokering evolved into merchandising Food brokerage continued to grow in popularity. By the 1960s, every state had a similar business model. Regional areas especially saw a major rise, as there would be hundreds of different independent brands to represent. Each broker specialised in knowledge of their region from corner to corner, which was much more effective than having someone turn up once in a while who knew little about the area and had few contacts, if any. These state-based businesses shared common clients as local buying offices were necessary for major clients. It was important to have a state office to facilitate meetings with these buyers, hence these companies developed across Australia in parallel. By this point, Mr King had set up his own family business, WK King Sales, and represented Sydney. Claude Charles (CC) Hamilton (from another of the founding families of Strikeforce) had his family’s business located in Queensland, operating under the name CC Hamilton & Co. The Victorian counterpart was the Scott Marketing Group. The CC Hamilton business followed a model akin to that of the Grocery Fountain Tomato Sauce bottle ad from the 50s. W.K. King in 1926. Corporation, an integral branch of WK King Sales. This began as a business that helped a couple of grocery manufacturers seeking representation in Queensland. Charles Hamilton was a one-man band until business began to grow consistently. In 1974, Charles Hamilton was joined by his son Hugh Hamilton, who brought in years of first-hand experience of working with Woolworths as a manager. When W.R. King joined WK King Sales in the 1950s, he began to expand on 66 RETAIL WORLD APR, 2021