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The founder of the company, Bruno Altin, arrived in Australia from Maser, Province of Treviso, Italy, in 1951, and by 1953 had settled to work in Griffith as a mechanic.
Being impressed by the potential for the region to provide work, he called for his wife Adelia and two sons from Italy.
Bruno and Adelia worked long hours to repay the debt incurred by the family's trip to Australia, and to save for their dream of building their own home. To realise this dream, Bruno and Adelia bought a simple manually-operated machine for making concrete bricks.
They both worked hard at making bricks, Adelia during the day, and Bruno after work and on weekends. Bricks were in demand in the Griffith area, and local builders soon became interested in buying the bricks intended for Adelia's own home.
This led Bruno, Adelia and their children to work harder and longer hours to meet the demands for more and more bricks! Griffith and the M.I.A. were developing rapidly at this time and there was a growing demand for concrete products for housing, irrigation and road building. Bruno used his resourcefulness and experience in farming, welding and metalwork to build a concrete mixing machine and formwork to increase production of concrete bricks, and also to begin manufacturing other concrete products like tile drainage rings, pipes and water stops.
While Bruno Altin & Co officially opened for business in 1954, Bruno himself did not work full-time in the business until 1957, but only worked in his spare time after work, leaving Adelia to attend to the production and administration of the business on a day to day basis. Over the years the company continued to expand its range of products and to increase its output.
In 1963 Bruno registered his first two patents for the "T" and "L" shaped water stops, and won first prize at a display for design in irrigation at the Griffith Waterwheel Festival. The company now holds six registered patents and makes over 350 different pre-cast concrete products. Many of these products comply with Australian Standards and R.T.A. specifications. Its customers include farmers, industry and local and state governments.
Today, production is fully mechanised ensuring the manufacture of high quality and economically viable products to meet customer demands. Bruno, and his son Gino, are dedicated to improving both the design of the products, and the manufacturing process itself, to ensure upmost customer satisfaction.
During the last ten years production from the factory has quadrupled, and continues to increase. Ongoing innovation, design and a desire to please the individual needs of its customers has been the key to the birth of this precast concrete industry and a successful business in the Griffith area.
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