Partner Focus: 100+ years
BMJ
BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL
Collier & Catchpole: 153 years
Managing director: Tim Rowbottom Location: Colchester
Q: How long have you been in business? Since 1863
Q: How did the business get started?: The Collier Family have traded in and around Colchester since 1863, firstly as WH Collier Manufacturing Bricks, subsequently moving into Sand & Gravel as Collier Bros before beginning the merchant business Collier & Catchpole Ltd. The Catchpole name joined the business in the early 70’s when E Catchpole and Sons was purchased, this was a similarly long lived business, Edgar Catchpole starting as a builder in the mid 1800’s.
Q: Is it still owned by the same people/family now? Yes. The business is wholly owned by the descendants of the Collier Family
Q: What are the biggest/most noticeable changes you think the industry has seen over the years? Definitely the speed of business, Roy
Collier told me the story of how, if his Grandfather needed to do business in Colchester, it would involve an overnight stay. The business was based in Marks Tey at the time which is approximately five miles from Colchester! I have a picture on my wall of a steam lorry coming out of the Colchester site in around 1913. Back then, it would have had a top speed of five miles per hour, perhaps. By its very nature this made material supply less urgent, now everybody wants it yesterday.
Q: How has the company developed? One of the challenges of any family business is handing it to the next generation. The move into sand and gravel gave the company a chance to pass the brickworks to one son and the quarry business to another. The move into merchanting was about using the assets that the business already had, namely land. Now the merchant business not only faces the challenge of passing to the next
generation but a market that is developing rapidly in different directions.
Q: What plans do you have for the next 100 years? Our strategy is based on being a family business in 100 years !! What shape or size or format that business will be is very difficult to predict. However, what is clear is that being a privately owned entity we can make decisions quickly and for the long term. This gives us the best opportunity to survive.
Issac Lord: 125 years
Managing director: Andrew Cripwell Location: High Wycombe
Q: How long have you been in business 125 years
Q: How did the business get started?: We were a hardware supplier to the furniture trade as High Wycombe was at the heart of the furniture trade a century ago
Q: Is it still owned by the same people/family now?
No, David Abbott and I bought it off the Lord Family seven years ago
Q: What are the biggest/most noticeable changes you think the industry has seen over the years: Furniture production has moved East
Q: How has the company developed? All those skilled woodworkers have moved from furniture production into kitchen production. Isaac Lord still pride
14 Building our Brands January 2017 BMJ
themselves on supplying joiners with everything they need bar the wood itself. We currently have 30,000 stock lines, and filter out “DIY quality products” so that tradesmen know they are getting products and tools that are fit for the job.
Q: What plans do you have for the next 100 years?
The big two challenges are the internet (particularly for small postable items) and global giants with their economies of scale and clever tax regimes. But we will adapt as the times change, just as we have done for the last 125 years.
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