General News
12 August, 2025
From father to son: Horsham Truck Company changes hands
After more than four decades of dedicated service, Tony Wills has officially retired, putting his storied career in park.
The owner of Horsham Truck Company, Mr Wills, will step down in September and has transferred control of the business to his son, Brendan.
While a mechanic might have diesel running through their veins, Tony's family jokes that he has parts stored in his brain.
"I was here when the business first started [in 1986]," he said.
"I had experience in the parts side of the trade, so I helped the owners set up.
"The depths of the drought saw me leave for a little while, and then I got the opportunity to come back and take it on.
"We ended up lucky enough to build it up to where it is now, which is a thriving little business."
As someone who offered 24-hour service to farmers for breakdowns during harvest, Mr Wills admitted it took him a while to adjust to the change.
However, he has since embraced his new future.
"When I passed the business on to Brendan, it took me a little to get my head around the fact I wasn't the boss anymore," he said.
"I didn't think I was quite ready; I can still pull my weight around here.
"But after going away for a couple of months … and the boys had run the business pretty easily without me, I thought it was probably really time that I moved on.
"So I went down to three days a week and found that not getting out of bed early on a Monday morning was pretty good."
Tony and his wife Sandra bought the business in 2010, which saw him work long hours as the company went from strength to strength,
He proudly admits the decision to step away was made easy after his son joined the company in 2016.
"Considering when the day we walked in here to take over it was fairly run down after a 10-year drought… to see it turned around to what it is now is fantastic," he said.
"We're pretty lucky that Brendan, who was never, ever coming back, is now married, has three kids and owns a business in Horsham.
"Once he came on board, I said to him, 'If you're fair dinkum, I'll teach you'."
Brendan said that while it was a steep learning curve, the past nine years went quickly because he was enjoying his job.
He admits the biggest challenge is yet to come.
"Part of getting my head around this is knowing that when I come in, I'm not going to work with Dad anymore," he said.
"All I've known here is working with dad, so that's a bit of a challenge.
"Fortunately, he's only a phone call away."