{{Short description|Australian business}} {{Cleanup rewrite|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox company |name = Hills Limited |logo = Hills Limited Logo.svg |former_name = Hills Holdings<br>Hills Industries |type = Public |traded_as = {{ASX|HIL}} |foundation = 1948 |founder = Lance Hill<br>Harold Ling |defunct = |location_city = Sydney |location_country = Australia |area_served = |key_people = David Chambers (Chairman)<br>David Clarke (CEO |industry = |products = |services = |revenue = $47 million |revenue_year = 2022 |operating_income = $24 million |income_year = 2022 |net_income = ($9 million) |net_income_year = 2022 |num_employees = |num_employees_year = |parent = Ames Australasia |divisions = |subsid = |website = [http://www.hills.com.au/ www.hills.com.au] |footnotes = }}
'''Hills Limited''' was a publicly listed industrial conglomerate company with branches across Australia and New Zealand. Hills is the evolution of Hills Hoist, the company founded by Lance Hill and Harold Ling in 1948<ref>[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hill-lancelot-leonard-lance-12636 Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17 (MUP) 2007 National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University]</ref> to manufacture the Hills Hoist clothesline. Hills was a value-added distributor of security and surveillance systems, IT infrastructure, nurse call and patient engagement technology. In 2023, Hills entered voluntary administration.<ref>[https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/manufacturing/company-behind-iconic-australian-invention-goes-into-administration/news-story/09dfbf5947149bcf43fb960b8e6055eb?amp Company behind iconic Australian invention goes into administration] ''News.com.au'' 5 June 2023</ref>
The origin of Hills Limited dates back to 1945, when Lance Hill copied the design of a rotary clothesline first invented and patented by Gilbert Toyne in 1925 Hills Hoist.<ref>[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hill-lancelot-leonard-lance-12636 Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17 (MUP) 2007 National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University]</ref> Together with his brother-in-law, Harold Ling, Hill manufactured the clothes lines in his backyard in Glenunga, South Australia, before moving production to a nearby factory. Hills Hoists Limited was formed in January 1948, with Hill as chairman and Ling as a director<ref>[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ling-harold-eustace-hill-10835 Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15 (MUP) 2000 National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University]</ref> and by 1954, the factory had relocated to a larger site and was producing six hundred hoists a week and supplying branches throughout Australia.<ref name=Harris>{{cite book|last=Harris|first=David|title=What a line! The story of the people who made the hoist an Australian icon: Fifty years of Hills|date=1996|publisher=Hills Printing Services}}</ref>
In 1956, Hill retired due to ill-health, and Ling took over as chairman. During the 1950s, Hills Hoists expanded its business into New Zealand and the United Kingdom, opening a factory in Auckland in 1958 and in Caerphilly, Wales in 1959. Simultaneously, the factory in Australia was diversifying into the production of other metal products, such as playground swings and folding chairs. In particular, Hills was pioneering the development of the television antenna, so that by 1957 Hills Hoists was Australia’s largest manufacturer of rotary clothes lines and one of the largest producers of television antennas.<ref name=Harris/> In 1958, Hills Hoists became a public company, Hills Industries Limited, and in the following years, entered into the TV service market, providing antennas, their installation and connection.<ref name=Harris/>
In 1967, Hills Industries opened its first purpose built metal tubing factory at Sullivan Beach in South Australia, and in 1969, acquired automotive component manufacturer Hitchin & Hallett, and began to produce automotive exhaust systems.
Throughout the 1970s, Hills kept pace with the rapid social and market changes of the era, expanding its range of consumer products, including children’s play equipment and homewares. By 1971, Hills had taken a leading position in the specialist TV market, as one of the few companies capable of handling both master and community antenna systems, and by 1985, Hills was the industry leader in TV antenna sales and technology, exporting its product to South East Asia and the Middle East.<ref name=Harris/>
In the late 1970s, Hilquip bodied 10 Leyland B21 and five Mercedes-Benz O305 buses for the Metropolitan Transport Trust from a factory in Balcatta, Perth.<ref>MTT News ''Rattler'' issue 93 April 1980 page 6</ref><ref>Metropolitan (Perth) Transport Trust ''Fleetline'' issue 71 June 1981 page 240</ref> It collapsed in 1980.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bus Fleets MTT Perth|date=1985|publisher=Railmac Publications|location=Elizabeth|isbn=0-949817-47-3|page=6}}</ref>
During the 1980s and 1990s, Hills divested itself of its automotive components business, but continued to diversify its portfolio. In 1986, Hills bought 46% of Korvest, a manufacturer of cable and pipe supports, and in 1987 acquired Direct Alarm Supplies, embarking on a new focus on security and surveillance.<ref name=Harris/> By 2000, Hills had consolidated its business into three industry segments focusing on electronics, home and hardware and building and industrial. Steel tubing had been the mainstay of Hills’ growth as a manufacturer, but in order to compete with large multi-nationals, the business was sold into a joint venture with Welded Tube Mills of Australia to form Orrcon Steel.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220053607/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/9a66df23-9fc3-478f-bbe8-f29be4ff7959/Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2000 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2000] Hills Industries</ref> In 2002, Hills sold 50% of its UK business to form a partnership with Freudenberg Household Products, manufacturers of the Vileda brand, to facilitate sales throughout Europe.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220052803/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/e91867dc-ee2b-4561-9b41-7e27a14fe5df/Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2002 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2002] Hills Industries</ref> In Australia, the K.Care group and Kerry Equipment (health care equipment brands) were acquired, as Hills capitalised on the growth in the aged care sector.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220052609/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/3a788037-7fc1-4f36-a4d8-52686b6e4619/Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2003 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2003] Hills Industries</ref>
By 2004, Hills had refined it business segments to electronic security and entertainment, home and hardware and building and industrial, signalling a focus on the provision of integrated entertainment, security and communications systems.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220052358/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/91b24395-3bfe-4981-80e5-d5a8aa28e1a6/Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2004 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2004] Hills Idustries</ref> In 2006, Hills sold its remaining investment in Hills United Kingdom to Freudenberg Household Products, ending its venture into the European market.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220051625/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/366baf93-8b30-40e6-9f03-b3d80f35c549/Full-Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2006 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2006] Hills Industries</ref> With the acquisition of Air Comfort Seating Systems in 2007, to complement the K-Care and Kerry Equipment range, Hills Healthcare was launched and quickly became the leading manufacturer of rehabilitation, mobility and hospital equipment in Australia.
In 2010, Hills Industries Limited changed its company name to Hills Holdings Limited, to reflect its transition from an industrial company to a diversified investment company,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170220050120/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/c19866d6-2540-4d10-b5d0-8447303e6a49/Full-Annual-Report-Year-Ended-June-30-2010 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2010] Hills Industries</ref> and in 2012, embarked on a major restructure to transform from a low margin, capital intensive manufacturer to a distributor of integrated technology products and services.<ref name=AnnualReport2013>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170215102032/http://corporate.hills.com.au/getattachment/5863f724-f314-495d-841f-f9b9490482b6/Full-Annual-Report-Year-Ended-30-June-2013 Annual Report for year ended 30 June 2013] Hills Holdigs</ref> In December 2013, the company changed its name from Hills Holdings Limited to Hills Limited<ref>[https://announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20131204/pdf/42ldgpy8x6sfqf.pdf Hills Transformation Continues as Hills Limited] Hills Limited 4 December 2013</ref> and divested itself of industrial assets including Korvest and Orrcon, as well as its healthcare businesses to focus on opportunities in technology and communications.<ref name=AnnualReport2013/> After two years of having licensed the sale of its Hills Home Living brands to Woolworths, Hills Limited sold the manufacturing and sale rights of those brands to Ames Australasia,<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/hills-sells-right-to-make-and-sell-hills-hoist-clotheslines-20170102-gtl1ko.html Hills sells right to make and sell Hills Hoist clotheslines] ''Sydney Morning Herald'' 3 January 2017</ref> a subsidiary of the American Griffon Corporation.<ref>[http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/hills-ltd-sells-intellectual-rights-on-clothesline-and-other-products-to-local-arm-of-usbased-griffon-corporation/news-story/f2c19c4b46a4daa5222e28fd43ef06b5 Hills Ltd sells intellectual rights on clothesline and other products to local arm of US-based Griffon Corporation] ''Herald Sun''</ref>
In August 2013, Orrcon Steel was sold to BlueScope.<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/business/earnings-season/generous-pay-rise-for-bluescope-execs-20130819-2s5r4.html Generous pay rise for BlueScope execs] ''Sydney Morning Herald'' 18 August 2013</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20240823103506/https://announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20130819/pdf/42hr1bd2mfg9bn.pdf BlueScope to acquire Fielders and Orrcon] Hills Industries 19 August 2013</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Companies based in Sydney Category:Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1945 Category:1945 establishments in Australia