industry player profile
INDUSTRY PLAYER PROFILE
Spring Fair and the Totally shows played host to the Rainy Day Trustʼs charity
dinner which raised a whopping £17,000. Garden & Hardware News spoke to
President Ashley Leboff to find out more about the man heading up the charity.
Can you tell me a What are your responsibilities More than £17,000 was raised
bit about yourself? within the role? at the Spring Fair/ Totally shows’
I have has spent most of my career In the strict terms of the office, my party. How was this achieved?
working in the DIY industry, having main task is to chair the four quarterly How did the night go?
joined the family wholesale business, S. board meetings and the AGM. In real- We have been running a charity contact
Leboff (Fobel) Ltd, in 1967. I spent most ity, my responsibilities include liaising dinner for the past 10 years at the
of my career in sales dealing with my with our administrative manager, who Totally shows in London. In that time
own independent retailers in NW is based at BHETA’s head office in we have raised over £250,000. Now
London and then multiple retailers. In Birmingham, our fund raising assis- Totally have moved to the NEC, we
1990, I left Leboff to set up my own tant, sub-committee chairmen for were able to include the Spring Fair ex-
marketing company and was invited by marketing and our case committee, hibitors as well and we look forward to
Bill Robinson of Addis, (President 1990 – our honorary treasurer and my Vice the new enlarged Party growing from
1992) to lend my experience to the President. This means that there is strength to strength. The party was
board of the trade charity. In 2007, I was some form of communication be- great fun with a free bar and casino ta-
invited by our immediate past president, tween us most weeks. It is no differ- bles. We owe a great deal to our
Name: Ashley Leboff
John Poore, of Poores of Acton to stand ent from running another business Platinum Sponsors: Calor, Decco,
Position: President of
as his Vice President. My term of while trying to run your own! Liberon, Ronseal and Stax and our
The Rainy Day Trust.
Presidency followed in 2008. Dinner Sponsors: BHETA, Crown Paints,
What have you achieved since Cuprinol, DIY Week, Dulux, Exclusively
What are the key starting as President in 2008? Housewares, Hammerite, International
purposes of the charity? We have overseen a thorough over- Paints and Polycell.
The charity was established in 1843 haul of the Trust’s administration with
to provide pensions to past employ- the appointment of a new administra- What have you enjoyed the
ees, who had worked in the ‘metal tive Manager; Denise McGregor, and most during your time as head
trades’ as the hardware industry was the charity’s first ever Fund Raising of the Rainy Day Trust?
known then, who had fallen on diffi- Manager; Lizzie Helps. Other initiatives Working with my fellow trustees on the
cult times. This remained our function include the re-launch of the RDT’s por- board. My colleagues are all busy exec-
until the 1990s, but since then there tal; www.rainydaytrust.org.uk, a thor- utives from manufacturing, distribution
have been some changes. We have ough purge of the BHETA database and retail with bottom lines to deliver,
seen an alarming increase in the comprising past donors to the charity yet they all give up their time, voluntari-
amount of help we are asked to give and the RDT’s merger with the Pottery ly to help further the charity’s aims.”
to people in their middle age, whose and Glass Trade’s Benevolent Trust,
careers have been cut short because which we hope to see concluded this You are due to step down
they have been diagnosed with a de- coming March. as President in May, what
bilitating disease. The most worrying will you miss the most?
change has been our financial situa- What issues do you feel are most The close relationships that people
tion. Up to the 1990’s we enjoyed a prevalent within the industry? have with each other in this trade. For
healthy balance of payments, with What changes should be made? example, at the party at the NEC, I met
surplus reserves often being trans- As far as the Rainy Day Trust is con- up with an old supplier who I knew
ferred to increase our investments. At cerned, the perception of the charity when I was at Leboff. It was like we
that time we had over £3 million in- needs to change. We are not a rich met only yesterday. I have many great
vested, then came the dot.com bub- charity, but we estimate that there up memories that I will always cherish.
ble, 9/11, and every other stock to 1 million employees, past and
market crash up to and including last present throughout are industry who, What are your plans
year’s banking crisis. The result is that heaven forbid they should suffer in for the future?
the value of those same investments the way our beneficiaries do, could I am not allowed to put my feet up
has now dropped to only £1.2 million be eligible for our support. We are just yet. I now devote a lot of my time
and our payments to our beneficiaries too small to cope with that responsi- to working with my eldest son, Grant
have doubled in the same period. The bility. All that we ask, is that when Leboff, who is a sales and marketing
result is that we expect to report a companies are organising their own strategist. You can find him at
deficit of around £60,000 for 2009, fund raising events for their own www.intelligentsalesclub.com
and £80,000 in 2010 if our level of nominated charities, be they local or
donations does not increase suffi- national, they set aside 10 per cent of For more information visit
ciently to cover it. what they raise for the RDT. www.rainydaytrust.org.uk
22 Garden & Hardware News
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