For the past 50 years Robin Norris has been a dedicated member of the Australian electrical sector. Now he’s decided it’s time to pull up stumps.

It’s an impressive feat for electrical contractors to rack up 50 years on the tools. It’s a rare milestone well worth celebrating and a sign of someone doing something right. But, what is an even rarer occurrence is reaching 50 years working in the wholesale sector.

In 2015, Sonepar Pacific chief executive Robin Norris will join the illustrious ’50 Club’ by observing his 50^th (and final) year in the industry.

Sonepar Pacific is the parent company of electrical wholesaler Lawrence and Hanson.

A born and bred Taswegian, football-mad Robin knew from a young age that he wanted to work in the electrical industry. At the age of 15, he started his apprenticeship with local contractor Phil Lovett, with whom he worked for seven years before moving into the wholesale sector.

“Back then, to get an apprenticeship was a prestigious thing,” he says.

“They were pretty sought after positions.

“When I decided to leave school, my mother was keen for me to get an apprenticeship with the Hydroelectric Commission, as it was known back then, or with Electrolytic Zinc Company because she said if you got a job there you’d have a job for life.

“I didn’t want that. Instead, I applied for a job in the paper.”

Robin explains that in those days, it took a month between applying for the job and getting an interview because everything was done through the post. (“Today, if you don’t reply within an hour the applicant is no longer interested.”)

He remembers the interview process was far more gruelling that today, too. Clarence.

“The world has definitely changed in this respect,” he says.

“The final thing that Phil did before he gave me the job was meet my parents. Could you imagine today if that was a requirement? It would never happen.”

This isn’t to say that Robin believes young workers aren’t as capable as those from his generation.

“When people talk about ‘young people’ today, I don’t actually see a huge difference… except their perception of time. They want the same things that I wanted, it’s just a different process – smart phones compress time,” he says.

Modern times have also seen the rise of the ‘specialist’.

“I don’t want to sound cliché, but so much has changed in the past 50 years and so much hasn’t.

“As a kid you did your apprenticeship and everyone got the same qualifications. We were all called electrical mechanics and there was no such thing as a specialisation.

“You didn’t have people who were specialists in industrial control or automation.

“We were all trained to be generalists and that was possible because the product range was so small. The Clipsal catalogue would have been 30 pages. Now, the Clipsal by Schneider Electric catalogue needs to be downloaded because it’s so large.”

Perhaps most impressively, throughout Robin’s 50-year career, he has only ever worked for three different companies – an idea that would send shivers up the spine of many a millennial.

“I worked with Phil Lovett for seven years after which I moved into wholesale with the old GEC, and then spent the next 37 years with L&H, come ALH, come Pacific Distribution, come Hagemeyer, come Sonepar.”

But, Robin says, the past 50 years in the electrical sector almost never happened.

In his early twenties, Robin was a star fullback for the Glenorchy Aussie Rules team. He was so good that was signed on several Form 4s, which the then-Victorian Football League (VFL) used to allow interstate players to try out for VFL teams. He was invited several times to pre-season training at Richmond but was never signed up.

He then moved back to Glenorchy, where he took the role of captain-coach.

“When I realised that the VFL wasn’t going to happen, I entered the electrical wholesale sector,” he says.

“I started in Tassie and then went to Brisbane for two-and-a-bit years. I went back to Tassie and I then moved to Melbourne to be state manager for L&H in 1988.

“I was here for two years and then went to NSW in 1990 for three-and-a-half years as its state manager. In 1994 I moved back to Melbourne as the operations manager and in 1999 I was made CEO.”

Robin says electrical wholesaling has changed a lot in that time, but a few things remain the same.

“Back when I started, the wholesaler’s rep was a contractor’s sole point of contact with a shop. Nowadays, contractors have so many ways to connect with a wholesaler, but they still want that personal connection,” he says.

“But the time has come for the wholesale sector to improve its image or we will face competition from someone we don’t currently see as a competitor.

“A potential threat to any business is the internet. Look at Amazon.com – it has the potential to be a major player in this space. And the reason why it’s so successful is that it has an amazing supply chain.

“To succeed into the future, improving our supply chain is critical.

“I said earlier that the Clipsal catalogue is a lot thicker than it was, but so is everybody else’s.

“The requirement for wholesaler staff to be knowledgeable on product back when I started compared to today is unbelievable. It’s incredibly demanding. And if we don’t have good technology to support it, if we don’t have the ability for people to find info, we will never get new product to market as quick as we need to.”

Robin is now preparing to enter the next phase of his life – the first in a long time that won’t involve the electrical industry 24/7.

Though his retirement might mean the end of hearing Robin plugging L&H’s Traders electrical industry trade shows on early morning radio with his well known “G’day, Robin Norris here…”, don’t be surprised if you hear his voice around the industry he has spent so much time helping to build.

“Weaning myself off the industry is going to be hard to do. I have so many friends spread across the country, so I’d like to think I can give back in some way.”

On behalf of the thousands of electrical industry members that Robin inspired and befriended over the years, Electrical Connection wishes him all the best for the future and acknowledges his contribution to the industry over the past five decades.