asx hil founded 1945 headquarters adelaide sa australia key people jennifer helen hill ling chairperson grant logan ceo and group managing director subsidiaries apg crestron australia das hills antenna & tv systems hills sound vision and lighting intek lan 1 ops pacific communications step electronics hills connection solutions former techlife and hills health solutions former htr merlon questek website www.hills.com.au hills limited formerly hills holdings limited is a technology product and services business delivering integrated security and surveillance audio visual lighting communications and mobility alert devices and services into environments such as hospitals aged care transport education banking and the corporate sector . the company was initially built upon the invention of the hills rotary hoist . 1 history edit lance hill began to manufacture a lever style hills rotary clothes hoist in his backyard in 1945 . 2 lance hill s brother in law harold ling returned from the war and joined him to form a partnership in 1946 . ling became the key figure in expanding the production and marketing of the hills hoist . in 1947 hills hoists began manufacturing a wind up clothes hoist . this design often incorrectly credited to lance hill had been patented by gilbert toyne in 1925 . it was an all metal model australian patent no. 24553 25 with its enclosed crown wheel and pinion winding mechanism . 3 toyne had established manufacturing sites in adelaide melbourne and sydney and his toyne hoist was available for purchase nationwide by the 1930s . however it was hills entry into the market place at the end of world war ii which saw them gain dominance of the rotary clothes hoist market . 4 the company hills hoists became hills industries in 1958 . they purchased an adelaide tube making mill to ensure supplies of steel tubing which was difficult to obtain during world war ii . in the following years hills industries also purchased a galvanising firm as well as a plate and polishing shop . 5 in 1955 hills industries became a public company . however lance hill retired in 1956 due to ill health and harold ling took over as chairman of the company . 5 in 1959 the company began manufacturing television antennae . 6 it quickly diversified into other products usually involving some form of metal fabrication such as playground swings and folding chairs . on 12 november 2010 the company changed its name to hills holdings limited . on the appointment of its new group managing director and ceo ted pretty in september 2012 the company embarked on a major restructure and transformation . on 4 december 2013 changed its name from hills holding limited to hills limited . 7 on 4 december 2014 woolworths limited asx wow and hills limited asx hil announced a strategic partnership . . the licensing agreement is for up to 19 years and gives woolworths exclusive rights to the hills heritage brand as it applies to more than 240 products including clotheslines clothes care and garden sprayers . on 27 may 2015 the hills board appointed grant logan as chief executive officer . 8 references edit urban rebecca ; westerman helen 18 may 2005 . hills are alive with sound of movement . the age . melbourne . harris d. 1996 what a line the story of the people who made the hoist an australian icon fifty years of hills gilbert toyne s 1925 rotary clothes hoist patent ip australia accessed 3 6 2011 cuffley p. & middlemis c. 2009 hung out to dry gilbert toyne s classic australia clothes hoist a b moore george 2001 . the development of the hills company . the creators . balcatta western australia r.i.c. publications . p. 21 . isbn 978 1 86311 676 3 . retrieved 16 july 2010 . invest smart hills industries limited hil . fairfax media invest smart . 19 may 2010 . retrieved 15 july 2010 . hills limited pdf . asx asx . 4 december 2013 . retrieved 4 february 2013 . http www.corporate.hills.com.au getattachment ee581d11 ada8 4289 9414 2504 de630c43 appointment of a new chief executive officer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title hills limited & oldid 744437513 categories companies established in 1945companies based in adelaidecompanies listed on the australian securities exchange navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 october 2016 at 06 17 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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