TRAIL BOSS BLOGHAPPY 25th ANNIVERSARY BARKBUSTERS!
To notch up 25 years in business is a major landmark by any measure, and this past week marked precisely that milestone in the history of Aussie off-road product brand Barkbusters.
And to mark the occasion, Barkbusters boss Matthew Phillpott invited a select number of members of the now global Barkbusters family to congregate at Bateman's Bay on the NSW south coast for a mighty two days of dirt bike riding good times!
Dr Phil and I were honoured to be on the invite list and rolled into the Bay late last Monday night to find the celebrations in full swing.
In the house were a myriad of Barkbusters staffers (the company now employs a dozen workers at its Wollongong, NSW, production plant), Aussie state Barkbusters distributors and a handful of international Barkbusters importers from markets as diverse as Greece, Holland, the UK and the USA.
And taking pride of place alongside Matthew and his wife Di, the current owners of the Barkbusters brand, was company founder and dead-set Aussie enduro legend, Ted Goddard and his wife Anne.
Ted created the Barkbusters brand in the early 1980s and lodged the Barkbusters trademark in 1984 ... and the rest, as they say, is history!
When Ted and Anne sold the business to Matthew and Di almost 15 years later, the company was turning out around 2,500 units a year. Today, with a wider product range and extensive international marketing, Barkbusters produces just on 20,000 units a year.
The Barkbusters 25th Anniversary event included two days of primo riding on the NSW south coast, with the rides split into two groups: a trail posse lead by local KTM Trail Tours trail boss Lindsay Bond and his crew, while another group mounted on adventure bikes was lead by yet another Aussie enduro legend and now NSW south coast local, Chris Cater.
Two days of riding provided untold hours of post-ride bench racing, but the biggest thrill of all for those in attendance was the official dinner on Tuesday night, which saw an emotional Ted and a proud-as-punch Matthew cut the ceremonial 25th anniversary cake and toast the next 25 years of Barkbusters.
Proudly Australian and locally made, Barkbusters is an iconic Aussie brand that leads the world in the area of flight deck protection for trail, enduro and adventure bike riders -- and here at TRAIL ZONE we salute their achievements.
Ride on Barkbusters!
Look out for our story on the Barkbusters 25th Anniversary celebrations in TRAIL ZONE issue #27.
-- Clubby,
www.trailzone.com.au
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