50 Years Of Edcon Steel

Built on People, Purpose, and Perseverance

Fifty years is a remarkable milestone for any Australian business. The passing years see industries change, economies rise and fall, and technology transform almost every aspect of our lives. Businesses either adapt, or they disappear.

Edcon Steel has managed to not only survive, but thrive over the years, evolving to meet the challenges and opportunities of each new decade. Yet somehow, through all of the changes, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: people have always come first.

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, there is no grand fanfare from our Managing Director Hugh Edmunds, son of Edcon Steel Founder, Jeff Edmunds. Instead, there is quiet reflection. There’s pride, gratitude, but above all, humility. Sitting in the Brookvale head office, Hugh admits that reaching 50 years still feels surreal:

“It’s a massive, massive privilege and such an honour. I don’t know where to start, to be honest. It’s been part of my life for so long. There’ve been lots of milestones along the way, but this was one we highlighted a long time ago—that we were about to turn 50. It slowly crept up on us, and here we are. I just wish Dad was here to see it, he would have been so proud.” 

A Family Legacy

For Hugh Edmunds, Edcon Steel is woven into the story of his life. It’s where he spent his childhood, learned from his father, and continues the family legacy that began 50 years ago. Like many family businesses, work and family life blended together, with weekends, school holidays, and afternoons often involving a trip to the workshop with his father.

“Dad would be driving me home from school or sport and say, ‘I just need to go down to work.’ Then weekends and school holidays became helping out around the place. It was just normal.”

Despite those early years, joining Edcon long-term wasn’t part of the original plan. Hugh studied engineering and started a career elsewhere, but his father saw his potential.

“Dad said, ‘You should come and work for us.’ I kept saying no… then he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He threw in a ute.”

That decision would shape the next three decades of Hugh’s life and ultimately see him lead the business into its next generation.

Today, three generations of the Edmunds family have worked at Edcon Steel, with Hugh’s daughter also part of the team.

While Jeff built the business itself, Hugh believes his father’s greatest legacy was the values he left behind: perseverance, humility, and looking after people.

“The never-give-up attitude is definitely number one. There were lots of times I thought everything was too hard. Dad always said, ‘You’ll work it out. Keep at it and you’ll find a way.'”

Those lessons continue to guide Edcon through changing markets, economic downturns and industry challenges.

Hugh often compares business to another passion he shared with his father—ocean racing.

“You get into the middle of a storm and think it’s all too much, but you just keep going. Eventually the waves settle, the sun comes back out and things get better. Business is much the same.”

Those simple lessons remain embedded in Edcon’s culture today.

Our Story Begins in Brookvale

When Jeff and his brother opened the Edcon Steel all those years ago, the small Brookvale workshop was dedicated entirely to fabrication, with the brothers taking on jobs from a small workshop tucked behind a building in Brookvale.

As word spread about the quality, service, and professionalism of the brothers, the fabrication business grew and Edcon Steel gradually expanded into neighbouring units.

Once the Edcon Steel sign appeared out the front of their workshop in Brookvale, something unexpected started happening. Customers began dropping in asking whether they could buy “a piece of this” or “a piece of that.”

From a small fabrication workshop to Australia's most comprehensive online steel and metal store

Those simple questions sparked an entirely new direction for the business.

“The whole idea of reselling and selling steel came later. Once they had the sign out the front, people started dropping in asking if they could buy bits of steel. That’s when the store idea started to happen.”

What began as a small fabrication workshop has grown into the Edcon Steel of today, with five steel stores across NSW, a dedicated steel fabrication facility in Sydney, and Australia’s most comprehensive online steel and metal store. Yet every step of that journey has been guided by customer needs, not growth for growth’s sake. 

Our Revesby store has become South West Sydney’s engineering steel hub, supporting builders and fabricators with custom cutting, crane-truck delivery direct to site.

Our Blacktown store helps Western Sydney builders, tradies, and DIYers with custom cutting, Click & Collect and fast local delivery.

Our Orange store supports the regions vineyards, farms, mines and builders with rural supplies, custom cutting, delivery and pickup.

Our Bathurst store serves the Central Tablelands with steel, rural products, custom cutting, delivery and pickup for builders and farmers.

Our online store allowed us to offer our products and services to customers across Australia.

Each new location, innovation, or service offering has allowed Edcon to better support its local industries. Since opening the original fabrication workshop, each milestone reflected one simple goal: making it easier for customers to get the job done.

50 Years of Making Steel Easier to Buy

Over the past 50 years, the steel industry, customer expectations, and the way people buy have changed dramatically. Through it all, we’ve kept adapting with one goal in mind: making life easier for customers. 

We continue to prioritise quality, compliant products, clear pricing and dependable service, backed by a trusted group of suppliers that includes certified Australian-made steel wherever possible, alongside carefully selected imported products.  

Whether you need a single cut length, a full fabrication package or a job delivered to site, we work hard to make buying steel simpler, faster and more reliable.  

More Stores, More Products, More Choice

Customer expectations have changed alongside the steel industry. People want more choice, better availability and less time spent chasing products across multiple suppliers.

Edcon has grown to meet that need, with each store opening designed to meet the needs of local communities, our ever expanding product range now sitting in the thousands, and more options for getting your steel to you. The result has been a broader, more reliable service for our customers across Sydney, New South Wales, and Australia.

Custom Cut Steel and Smarter Ordering

From those early days in the Brookvale workshop, we saw that customers don’t always want full lengths, and understood that they should not have to pay for more than they needed. 

Our cut-to-size steel service has been helping customers order steel and metal to the lengths they actually need for years, and we’ve continually invested in advancing our cutting capabilities, expanding from traditional saw cutting to a comprehensive range of equipment including bandsaws, cold saws, guillotines, punch and shears.

This ongoing investment means customers can order steel and metal cut to their exact requirements, reducing waste, saving time on-site, and making projects faster, easier, and more cost-effective.

Online Ordering and Live Pricing

As an electrical engineer, Hugh recognised the emerging digital landscape, and its potential, early on. 

“We had a website way back in 2000. I could see early on that the internet was changing how people buy. Going online made sense for Edcon because it made it easier for customers to get what they needed.” 

Over the last 25+ years, that simple website has grown into Australia’s most comprehensive online steel and metal store.

Today, customers can browse thousands of products, view live pricing, request quotes and order online 24/7.

Australia's first integrated online cutting optimiser

For more complex orders, our new integrated online cutting optimiser makes the process even easier by helping customers build cutting lists, improve ordering accuracy and make better use of available stock lengths. It is a practical example of digital innovation built around customer needs, and Hugh is rightly proud. 

“We’re really excited about the optimiser. It makes cut-to-size ordering easier, and we’re proud to be the first (that we know of) to offer that capability.”

That gives trade and DIY customers a much clearer, faster way to plan jobs, price materials and buy when it suits them. It also means the service customers expect in store is now available online, with the same focus on transparent pricing, more choice, and support from our team.  

Serving Customers Across Australia

We understand that quality service is just as important after an order is placed as before. Over the years we have continued to evolve our after-sale service offerings to make buying steel as easy and convenient as possible. 

Our Click & Collect service is perfect for customers close to our steel stores, allowing them to buy online and pick up when it suits. For those a bit further away, we deliver daily across Sydney and the Central West of NSW using our own truck fleet. For customers even further afield, our national freight partners help get orders where they need to go across Australia.

Whether materials are being collected locally, dispatched to a workshop or delivered straight to site, the goal is the same as it has always been: getting the right steel to the right customer, at the right time.

While a lot has changed over the past 50 years, our purpose has remained the same: helping customers build, create and solve problems with the right steel.

Helping Australians Build, Create, and Innovate

Looking back over the last 50 years, while Hugh is proud of the way Edcon has evolved, he doesn’t measure success by the number of stores, the service innovations, or the size of the product range. Instead, he thinks about the people behind the projects.

There have been generations of builders who have grown their businesses with Edcon Steel, manufacturers who have relied on the company as their trusted supplier, and families who have returned year after year for advice, materials and support.

One customer, in particular, has stayed with Hugh.

“One of the first customers I worked with in 1996 was building a house in Mosman. Just last week, nearly three decades on, he was in the store talking about his retirement. It’ll be sad to see him go.” 

Stories like these are repeated every day across the business.

Builders delivering infrastructre.

Engineers creating clean energy technology.

Tradies fabricating trailers.

Artists creating sculptures.

DIYers tackling weekend projects.

Even kids building satellite ground stations!

Our people-first philosophy is what drives us to support thousands of customers every week, helping source everything from a single length of flat bar to fully fabricated structural steel packages.

We love celebrating the ingenuity, skill, and craftsmanship of our customers, so check out our customer project articles.

It's Always Been About the People

Ask Hugh what has remained constant over the past 50 years and his answer isn’t steel, stores, or technology. It’s the people.

The customers who have trusted Edcon Steel with project after project. The suppliers who have stood by the business through changing markets. These long-standing relationships have been the foundation of Edcon Steel since the very beginning and remain at the heart of the business today.

“It’s all about people. Treating customers well, looking after staff, and investing in the relationships with our suppliers. They’ve all got long tenures. Once you find good people, you work on a relationship that’s mutually beneficial and works for both of you.”

That philosophy extends well beyond the customers and suppliers. Hugh is quick to point out that Edcon’s success has never been the result of one person. 

“I can’t take credit for Edcon’s success by myself. It’s one of those team things. People shouldn’t have to ring one person to get help. They should be able to ring the company and talk to anyone and get what they need.”

Edcon has always invested in its people. And for Michael Bevan, one of Edcon Steel’s Directors, this investment has helped form the culture of Edcon Steel today, a culture he’s very grateful to experience.

“Edcon began as a family business with a small-business attitude. And it’s still a big part of who we are. No one is ever behind a closed door. If the Managing Director comes in, you can always have a chat with him. Whether someone walks past or visits one of the branches, we have an open door culture.”

“All of our directors work in the business full-time, so our employees feel comfortable talking to them. Our management team always takes the time to know their staff, their interests and show that we appreciate our team.” 

This culture is reflected in the remarkable longevity of our team. Nearly half of our staff have been part of the Edcon family for more than a decade, which is a testament to the supportive and rewarding workplace we’ve built together. Ten team members have been with us for 5–10 years, 16 have dedicated 10–20 years of service, and 8 team members have been with Edcon for more than 20 years!

Giving Back to Our Local Communities

That investment in people goes beyond the Edcon Steel community. For Hugh, supporting the local community has always been one of the most rewarding parts of running the business.

Whether it’s donating materials to local organisations, supporting schools and university groups, helping young metalworkers develop their skills, or assisting community projects, he believes every contribution matters.

“It’s a privilege to be able to give back to the community. It’s just a bit of steel to us, but often it’s a massive part of somebody else’s project or problem. Being able to help is a privilege.”

The same thinking applies to supporting the next generation.

“It’s great to be able to give them a start and get them interested in using steel.”

From sponsoring our local Master Builders Association, the UNSW Bluesat engineering team, and the UTS Motorsports Team, to donating steel to Wollombi Valley Landcare or encouraging young metalwork students in rural NSW, Edcon Steel invests in the industries and communities it has served for the past 50 years.