Rowe a well-oiled machine

By Peter Sweeney
GRAHAM Rowe – who’s selling his half of the Australia-wide known and respected family agricultural business to his son Nick – said his legendary and late father “couldn’t quite understand that I didn’t understand.”
“I’ve never dreamt about tractors like dad did,” Graham, 64, said during the four-day Farm World at Lardner Park on the weekend, at which his company celebrated 50 years in the business.
Even though he has spent more than 40 years at Vin Rowe Farm Machinery – he returned home from Melbourne in 1969 as the company bookkeeper – Graham admits the business “has not meant as much to me as it did to Dad.”
“I did not have the passion for it that my father had,” Graham added.
That’s understandable. Fifty years ago, Graham’s father started Vin Rowe Farm Machinery at Warragul. Today, you couldn’t go anywhere in the country and find a man on the land who hasn’t heard of the company.
Born in Brisbane in 1925, Vin Rowe was the son of a farmer. He was schooled at Lismore in northern New South Wales and during holidays and post school worked on the land. However, engineering was his preferred love.
When 16, he headed south and got a job with the Polson Motor Company, a manufacturer of spare parts. In 1943, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force at Sale as an engine fitter, assisting with the fitting of engines to planes in most states during World War II.
In 1946, aged 21, Vin married Sale lass, Kathleen Symons. They had two sons, Graham and Trevor, who was a Gippsland journalist and now works in public relations in Melbourne.
Many years later, Vin was quoted as saying: “I’m sure I could not have chosen a better wife.” And of S. Lacey and Sons, the Sale manufacturing engineers where he worked, he said: “My association with the firm I joined has been highly satisfactory.”
Vin started with Laceys after leaving the Air Force. He trained with the company under a war service rehabilitation scheme and qualified as a fitter and turner.
In 1958, he became an agricultural sales representative when Laceys Equipment was formed. So successful was Vin, that the company offered him a position managing a newly established branch in Warragul in 1962.
Family and work may have been priorities, however, his involvement with his church, and the service organisation Rotary, was strong.
The legacy of Vin Rowe – who had a major stroke in 1983 and passed away four years ago – still lives on.
“My father taught me that honesty and dependability are the necessities for success, not only in business, but also in life,” Graham said.
“He was a very compassionate and generous man, who became a friend and adviser to many of his employees and customers.
“Some of his clients are still with us today, or their sons or grandsons are.
“Business is so different these days, mainly because of the way people communicate.
“It’s not as simple as it used to be and is more sophisticated. People want it now, nobody wants to wait a week.
“We’re known for many things, probably best for being machinery specialists to the vegetable industry.
“Years ago, we used to be in cars. I made some mistakes there, some bad ones, but I’ve done the best I could with the company.”
In 1985, Stephen Pike was working with Woods and Reeves, Warragul based “rivals” of Vin Rowe Machinery, when he got a telephone call from Graham Rowe.
“Come and see me,” is what Stephen, who moved to Warragul from a cherry growing orchard at Wandin when he was 14, heard.
He accepted an offer and sold Mazda cars for a year before taking over as machinery parts manager. Since the mid-2000s he has had 50 per cent ownership of Vin Rowe Farm Machinery.
Now, instead of Graham being his business partner, it’s to be Nick Rowe, who six years ago joined the company started by his granddad.
“Nick and I are to be the lack of brains of the outfit,” Stephen said. Naturally, he was joking, as he’s well qualified. And, in regards to Nick, it’s certainly not a case of a business being handed down the line, going from dad to son to son.
Nick was school captain of StPaul’s Grammar, Warragul, he has a law and commerce degree, was a tax consultant, a marketer with a major accounting company and one-time sponsorship manager of the North Melbourne Football Club.
And the future plans of Vin Rowe Farm Machinery?
“To provide the best equipment from around the world and first-class spare parts and service support facilities.”
Ah, that’s something Vin started 50 years back.