Technical Book Shop, founded 1941

The Technical Book Shop was founded in 1941 by Reginald Roy Radford and two partners. Reginald felt that there was an opportunity to provide more “technical” books to the Melbourne and Australian market. Since that day the Technical Book Shop has enjoyed a distinguished history, with the store being passed through 3 generations of the Radford family. Today the Technical Book Shop has the widest selection of Technical and Specialist books in Australia, and is still owned and operated by Radford family members.

Reginald Radford, founder of the Technical Book Shop
Reginald Radford the father of Paul Snr and Denise was a British immigrant who moved to Australia in 1912 at the age of 18, to start a new life with his widowed mother and six sisters. His journey saw him land at Fremantle in Western Australia, with little money and the clothes on his back.

In need of an income he joined a railway gang helping to build the Western Australian Railway, his job was that of a water carrier. This proved to be a harsh life. Work in WA was scarce and realising he needed a regular income he enlisted for military service and joined the 28th Artillery Battery of the Australian Army. He completed his training in WA before being sent to Egypt. Not long after, the world was at war and he was sent to defend his new country as an ANZAC. On the day of his 21st Birthday he landed at Galipoli. Through sheer fortune he managed to survive and was then sent to serve the rest of the war in the trenches at the Western front of Europe. At the end of his service Reg was sent to London to join the officer training school. Soon after hostilities ceased and he returned to Australia.

When the world went to war for the second time Reginald felt it was the right thing for him to serve his country again and joined the Royal Australian Air Force, enlisting as a pilot officer at the Officer Training School located at Point Cook in Victoria. He gradually worked his way up to the rank of Group Captain, where he oversaw the Air Training Corp (ATC).

Although not born in Australia Reg typified the Australian spirit of commitment in many ways to a country he loved so much. Many of his younger years were spent with the Life Saving Association, as like most Australians he had a great love for the beach.

Although Reg Radford was serving with the RAAF he helped manage the Technical Book Shop in his spare time and then later at the end of the war became more involved in the day-to-day operation of the company.

In the early days most of the books were imported from the UK and US, delivery time was a matter of months, not days or weeks as it is today. Reg would scour books, magazines and journals looking for new and interesting textbooks on a wide variety of subjects. Subject areas in the early days included: engineering, electronics, and university subjects such as sciences. Gradually enthusiast areas such as aviation and automotive were added. Other specialist subjects such as agriculture were introduced and became successful with the growing importance of this type of industry.

Paul Radford snr, shaping the modern day Technical Book Shop
Paul Radford snr, Reg’s son joined the company in 1951 at 20 years of age, the two worked together for 10 years beforeReg Radford retired in 1961. Reginald Radford died three years later in 1964. Paul Radford now managed the company, his sister Denise Radford also working with the company in the mail order department. Throughout the sixties the Radford family bought out the two partners and the company became solely family-owned and operated. It is undoubtably Paul Radford snr. who shaped the modern day Technical Book Shop.

The Technical Book Shop building
In the early days the Technical Book Shop leased only half the ground floor of the building. In 1965 the 2nd half of the Red Cross Building as it was known in those days, was taken over by the Technical Book Shop – the whole ground floor was now leased to the company. The building was later bought by Legacy Melbourne who remains the owners of the building to this day. The Technical Book Shop has been in the same location since foundation.

During the sixties the automotive department was set up and run as a separate department. The growing interest in do-it-yourself repair was beginning to flourish with more and more people owning cars. The automotive department remains one of the strongest departments to this day, providing its customers with arguably one of the world’s finest and most comprehensive selections of automotive literature, magazines and video’s, resulting in somewhat of a “Mecca” for automotive enthusiasts. The General and Technical sections also became more defined and in the 60s and 70s as more publishers were beginning to set up representation and distribution centres in Australia, more books were becoming available locally.

Paul Radford jnr, learning from the ground up
In 1980 Paul’s son, Paul Jnr commenced with the company and began learning the trade from the ground up. “I remember my first day on the job, Dad thrust the broom into my hand and with a big smile on his face said you can start sweeping, just as his father had done with him on his first day”. Paul started in the warehouse receipting incoming goods and despatching outgoing orders. After this he worked in the General and then Technical Departments of the Shop acquiring a good knowledge of what stock set the Technical Book Shop apart from other book stores. This also included a time out on the road visiting account customers.

In 1984 it was decided a separate department for Computer books would be established. Paul snr had the foresight to see the computer boom coming, on a buying trip to the USA. This was a bold move in a new and unknown market and Technical Book Shop was the first book store in Australia to have a separate department devoted to computer books and quickly became known for its range and staff product knowledge in this new and developing field. Paul jnr assumed the management role of this department and helped to shape this into one of the company’s strongest departments during the height of the personal computer boom.

Paul Radford jnr appointed as Director of the Technical Book Shop
In 1986 Denise Hadley (nee Radford) retired from the company and Paul Radford jr was appointed as a Director and to the position of General Manager. Denise now lives in the United Kingdom.

During the 80s and 90s Technical Book Shop continued to sell books in the more technical, specialist and enthusiast markets. The positioning over the years has changed slightly, however the store has always been focused at the special interest and technical market.

Caroline Radford, bringing marketing experience to the family business
In 1993, Caroline Radford sister of Paul jnr, joined the company from a background in marketing. Caroline completed a degree in business in Melbourne, before travelling to holiday and work in Europe. During time spent in London Caroline worked for the Lauder group and held the position of Promotions Manager at Clinque where she honed her marketing and general business skills.

Today Paul Jnr and Caroline are joint Managing Directors, Caroline looking after the marketing & sales and Paul the operational side of the business. Caroline had also worked in the Shop during her school holidays so joining the family business was a very easy transition. “Saturday mornings were a regular thing for me, I have been around books all my life, so I guess it’s in the blood”

The Technical Book Shop renovation
In 1995/96 the store undertook a massive renovation project. The entire store was stripped and the old steel shelving which had been in place since Reg’s days were removed and the store was fitted out to maximise space and provide a warmer and friendly retail atmosphere. The administration, which previously resided in a building behind Legacy House was also brought into the mezzanine levels. This enabled all resources to be located under the one roof, providing a smoother inter-company work flow.

The Technical Book Shop today
Today Technical Book Shop provides the Australian market with a large range of subject areas and books in specialist fields. Although the store does not aim to be a general bookshop it does carry books in some general areas such as gardening, food ,wine and general paperbacks. Even in these fields we try to stock more specialised and unique books that provide greater in depth information to the buyer. Our key strengths lie in areas such as Automotive, Computers, Engineering, Aviation, Electronics, Business and Military.
Like all successful companies the greatest strength and asset is in our staff. Being a family business, The directors of the business strive to create a family like work environment. The people who work at Technical Book Shop are not only enthusiastic about books, but also about the subject areas we sell. For instance, the motoring booksellers are also car enthusiasts, which means our customers are dealing with people with a good knowledge of the subject area. In our computer area, many of the staff have had a prior background in computer studies and or the industry itself. We have always taken great pride in our customer service, trying to go the extra mile to get that “hard to get” title. Many people have often commented “If you can’t get it through the Technical Book Shop, then you probably can’t get it at all”. We specialise in hard-to-get books, and yes we do all the easy stuff too!. Our staff are sourcing books daily from all over the world and so if a book is in print, then we are going to find it for you at the best price, and the quickest method.

We have access to the most comprehensive databases available, and place a great emphasis on keeping pace with technology. We currently have and AS/400 system integrated to an IBM cash register network. Recently a Windows NT server was introduced along side the AS/400 to complete a state of the art TCP/IP network. Applications are spread between the two systems, depending upon suitability to the task. Most of these applications have been “home grown” over a number of years, and this has given us greater flexibility over off the shelf software.

We are currently implementing a customer loyalty program and upgrading our Web site, in order to further enhance service to our large database of customers. New products and media are being introduced, such as videos and CD’s. We import a number of specialised books, magazines and video’s not usually available in Australia. We ship all over Australia and to a number of customers in other countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and even the USA.

While in recent times it has become “trendy” to stock more technically oriented books, the Technical Book Shop has always been technically oriented across the board, striving to be the number one place to source technical information on a wide range of subjects.

Paul Radford & Caroline Radford, together with the staff at the Technical Book Shop, thank you for your interest in the history of the company and extend a very warm welcome to you to visit our store when in Melbourne.