Agent TypeOrganisationIdentifierUMA-AG-000000257Activities & OccupationsManufacturers, clothing and textilesImportersHistoryWhen Peter Callil Fakhry arrived in Melbourne from Lebanon in 1881. In 1884 Peter opened ‘Latoof and Callil,’ a small warehouse in Exhibition Street, where he supplied goods to Syrian and other hawkers who serviced the country areas of Victoria, South Australia and southern New South Wales.
Four years later Peter visited Lebanon and returned with his bride, Anna Yazbek. Over the years their six sons and two daughters entered the business. By the late 1930s Latoof and Callil expanded its warehousing and manufacturing operations and built a modern plant in Brunswick.
During World War Two, Latoof and Callil made uniforms and other items for the Australian war effort. The family donated the profits generated to wartime charities, including the provision of field ambulances to military hospitals.
After the war the company established eight additional factories, and employed 1500 staff. Australia’s tariff barriers were lifted in the 1970s, and in 1981, Latoof and Callil was voluntarily placed in the hands of receivers.Search records of this agent
