The story
In 1920, Harold Joseph Reece began selling plumbing products from the back of his truck and later opened the first HJ Reece store in Caulfield. In 1958 Les Wilson was offered a seat on the board and gradually began buying shares in the business.
By 1969, the Wilson family was approaching a controlling stake in HJ Reece. On 20 July, regulators approved the Wilson family becoming majority shareholders of the company. In 1970, Les Wilson's son, Alan Wilson, who started Austral Hardware almost a decade earlier with the support of his father, became CEO of HJ Reece and later consolidated the two companies. Alan Wilson became executive chairman in 2008, and his son, Peter Wilson, succeeded him as CEO.
In May 2018, Reece announced the acquisition of U.S. based competitor MORSCO for $1.9 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on Reece Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4