Introducing a power-house in the truck and trailer body business that you would not expect
You may recall a couple of newsletters ago we featured ORH Truck Solutions, an engineering company specialising in building truck and trailer bodies for a wide range of industries.
And you may have noted their Group Sales Manager is a little different from the usual you meet in this industry… this person is of the feminine variety - hence, we’re featuring Caris Watson-Ellard, an inspiration to us all.
Caris grew up in a family of business owners — with her parents operating a farm-stay in the Swan Valley and an equipment finance company in Leederville.
Her first job led to becoming an Administrative Assistant in her father’s Finance Brokerage firm and assisting with the Farmstay.
She also competed nationally with show horses - traveling with the horses after school and to top that off she won the Nationals in 2015.
‘I learned early in my work experience the importance of work ethic, service excellence, and reputation,’ she said.
And as a consequence of this, Caris has built a remarkable career across sales and marketing, hospitality, accounting and finance, developing strong commercial leadership and a deeply customer-focused approach.
If you think that sounds a little glib, just check out some of the career highlights:
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She led the International Sales Division for Renouf Fitness in Osborne Park. This role was overseeing global sales and marketing, logistics and after-sales support and their Chicago IL USA operations.
Through COVID-19, she expanded the company’s international markets while navigating the unprecedented global supply and freight challenges.
‘If nothing else, the challenges of the Covid 19 period strengthened my operational resilience. After that, I needed a change and joined Primequip as their Business Manager’, she said.
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Primequip supplies machinery for quarrying, waste and recycling, ports, construction; civil engineering and mining.
She handled the company’s business procedures along with fleet and staff coordination, logistics, maintenance management and ensuring equipment performance in demanding field environments.
This role introduced her to the heavy vehicle industry, leading to becoming State Sales Manager for STG Global.
As STG expanded into W.A. she became the General Manager of Sales & Operations, establishing the Wangara facility, recruiting and leading the WA team, strengthening dealer networks, and managing the complete lifecycle from sales, builds and delivery through to service and support’.
In Nov 2024, she joined ORH Truck Solutions as the Group Sales General Manager.
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Her role, she says, is to lead the national sales strategy, foster dealer partnerships, ensure product delivery performance and brand growth to ensure the company offers exceptional engagement from first enquiry through to long-term support in field operation.
‘A key principle drives my approach — advice shared early in my trucking career: ‘I’m sure you can sell a truck. It’s how you support the customer, and the truck, afterwards that matters’.
‘This was spoken by Frank Johnston - a now-friend and colleague at Major Motors, and this philosophy guides me as to how I lead, collaborate, and uphold ORH’s values’, she said.
‘Although I’m one of the few women in my role in this traditionally male-dominated industry, I love what I do and take pride in contributing to its future.
‘My ongoing mission is to elevate ORH as a benchmark for Australian manufacturing excellence — delivering premium build quality, dependable support, and strong industry partnerships across mining, civil and fleet sectors’.
With that philosophy folks, you can see why this very strong female is becoming an industry leader to be reckoned with.
Caris Ellard Watson, the ORH engineering - https://www.linkedin.com/in/caris-watson-ellard-3bab921a6/
Need a truck capable of a certain task? - This company solves those sort of problems
One of the most interesting aspects of being in the business of supplying trucks is in encountering the wide range of uses taken by the trucks that we supply.
It definitely differs from simply being a car dealership.
And undoubtedly among the most interesting companies that we have the privilege of supplying Isuzu trucks to is ORH Truck Solutions, a specialist in the building of truck bodies for various industries around Australia.
ORH Truck Solutions, designs and builds such items as water carts and service trucks, along with tippers, tilt trays, custom designed fitter trucks, skip loaders, diesel fuel tankers, light and heavy plant trailers, plus water and fuel trailers.
It’s a particularly creative and well set up organisation with its own departments in sales, service, engineering, paint and parts able to go well beyond the standard items as the business can customise trucks and trailers to suit specific client requirements.
ORH virtually has the capacity to create any industrial solution body for mounting to a chosen chassis which comes as no surprise as the company is rated as the leading manufacturer of its kind within Australia for meeting the requirements for mining, civil and government needs.
And its head office is right here in W.A. – a blessing for our mining companies among others.
Group Sales General Manager, Caris Watson-Ellard said that 90% of the builds are on Isuzu chassis, from across Isuzu’s range, size and variant.
‘It’s the brand most requested by our clients’, she said.
‘They’re quality, reliable trucks and the support around WA is fantastic within the dealer network.
‘We’ve had a long-standing working relationship with Major Motors.
‘The team is always happy to help and assist ORH to provide the best quality service to our end users and further to that, Majors provide a top-quality and unmatched service from their sales, service, parts and support of the product each and every day for ORH.
‘There is rarely a day that goes by that we are not working together to achieve a deadline, collaborate on a build, buy parts, or organise a service for one of the trucks at one of their many locations’, she said.
‘It’s a relationship that works well for both businesses and is only continuing to grow and expand.