Business News The Griffin Report
Firmin and Sons Ltd, founded in 1655, is the UK’s oldest privately-owned business and is still thriving in the heart of Birmingham. Jon Griffin, Chamberlink’s award-winning columnist, visited the firm at its Newtown headquarters to find it what has made the company tick for more than 360 years.
other famous institutions – dating all the way back to the turbulent era of Oliver Cromwell. Firmin and Sons Ltd has played a
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distinctive part in global events down the centuries which have helped to shape the United Kingdom and the wider world, from Waterloo to the Charge of the Light Brigade, Trafalgar to El Alamein and Rorke’s Drift, the 2012 Olympics to the weddings of Princes William and Harry. And this unique slice of UK
manufacturing is still going strong from its homely base in Birmingham’s Newtown, more than 360 years after Ipswich-born Thomas Firmin set up business in the City of London in the tumultuous years before Charles the Second was restored as ruling monarch. The Firmin roll of honour is
unique among UK companies. Officially the UK’s oldest privately- owned manufacturer, the business has grown and flourished across a timescale spanning an astonishing five separate centuries to remain a key staple of the pomp and circumstance of 21st Century Britain. The button and badge maker originally survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. Since then it has outlasted World Wars, depressions and recessions as well as a spell in administration and remains a thriving concern employing 50 staff – many multi-skilled - in the internet age. That is some achievement by any
standards, but long-serving sales manager Tony Kelly is keen to stress that Firmin is far from resting on its laurels in an era of artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and other extraordinary 21st Century innovations. In sobering circumstances, the
Newtown firm is already discreetly planning ahead for events which are certain to shake the nation to its very foundations in due course – the funeral of the Queen and the subsequent Coronation. “These things are methodically
planned in advance – it will all come down to the College of Arms
hey are older than the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, Lloyd’s and many
MAIN PICTURE: Tony Kelly with original die for ‘Nelson’s Button’ dating from 1802
BOTTOM RIGHT: The famous blacksmith’s elm (anvil) which survived the Great Fire of London
‘The Royal Warrant is only awarded every five years so it’s proof that we are still coming up with the goods’
in London, which is part of the Royal Household. They (funeral arrangements) will have been in place since the Queen was crowned. We liaise with the college, we keep in touch – we will be open 24 hours a day during the funeral and Coronation periods.” Firmin, aka button-maker to the
Queen, has been the proud possessor of a Royal Warrant since the 18th Century but also boasts a vast range of other products, from busbies to gauntlets and medals to swords and scabbards. “The Royal Warrant is only
awarded every five years so it’s
proof that we are still coming up with the goods. “We think we have exported to
every country on the planet, or its predecessor. Whilst this is a very old industry, it has new challenges, new problems, new issues. “It is not about doing what we
did in 1655, it is how we take that tradition into the future. I am very proud of the skills of our people, their dedication and the products they produce and knowing that there is a 360-year lineage gives us a great sense of responsibility.
Cont’d on page 17... October 2019 CHAMBERLINK 17
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