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To fully appreciate the transformation story of Walkinshaw Group, some history is required. The business was established in 1987 by Scottish racing driver Tom Walkinshaw as a partnership with General Motors Holden to create Holden Special Vehicles( HSV). When Holden ceased manufacturing in Australia in 2017, the CEO Ryan Walkinshaw( Tom’ s son) faced a choice: evolve or exit. With Ford and Toyota also having recently ceased Australian manufacturing, Walkinshaw recognized an opportunity. The company pivoted to offer its engineering and manufacturing expertise to multiple Original Equipment Manufacturers( OEMs).
Ryan Walkinshaw explains that since the pivot, the business has grown significantly.“ We’ ve gone from primarily working with one manufacturer, General Motors Holden, to publicly working with six of the major global automotive manufacturers- Toyota, General Motors, RAM, Volkswagen,
Mitsubishi and Isuzu, plus others that we don’ t publicize,” he begins.“ We’ re now producing over 12,000 vehicles per year, with around 1000 employees.”
Business model
Its turnkey approach sets Walkinshaw apart.“ We can provide everything from the earliest design concepts all the way through to aftersales,” Ryan confirms.“ Usually, the OEM will come to us with a program where they need our support and we will work with them through all the different stages. In general, we will provide design and engineering, before moving on to manufacture, ultimately passing the vehicle back to the OEM to be sold in the dealer network, warrantied and fully approved. The customer wouldn’ t have any idea that we re-manufactured the vehicle.
“ Another differentiator for us is the ability to perform our programs exactly as the OEM would do themselves, except we can do this in a faster time frame and at a lot lower cost
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