Cable Management
very British roots of Marshall-Tufflex Marshall-Tufflex is globally recognised as a cable management market leader. But few people know that it started out manufacturing piping for Rolls-Royce cars, stumbling into the conduit market by a stroke of good fortune.
O
n May 28th this year, British cable management manufacturer Marshall-Tufflex celebrated its 75th
year in business –an outstanding achievement for a company started during the Second World War with just an idea, a name and a £394 War Loan. That idea – built around the use of a new
material, PVC, coupled with the aspirations of founder Harold Cirket – was to propel the business forward to become the £multi-million organisation that it is today. Odyssey, Sterling, Mini Trunking, Sterling Curve, Twin Plus and Twin165 are all established and familiar profile names, with Marshall-Tufflex confident that it has a solution for almost any cable management installation. Through Harold, C&C Marshall – as it was first
known – pioneered plastic extrusion in the UK, producing products such as shampoo tubes, household mats and tennis court lines, plus extruded components for shoes, handbags, corsetry, cars and buses. A business that started out manufacturing PVC rims and handles for tea trays and handbags was soon supplying PVC piping for trims and finishes to Rolls-Royce, Daimler, Ford Motor Company and The Austin Motor Company.
The beginning C&C Marshall started in the garage of Harold Cirket’s North London home. He taught himself about plastics, moulding and extrusion and, together with a family friend who was a chemist, conducted experiments in the garage, eventually inventing an extrusion machine. The early years were not easy; it was war time, the extruders were unreliable, the company had limited funds and the harsh winter of 1946/47 brought with it power shut downs. However, by May 1947 a corner had been turned. Twelve employees were producing plastic cane, belting and piping at the rate of 26 tons per year. Annual turnover had reached £12,000. As the business grew it moved, first to premises in Watford and then to Hastings, where it remains.
Family values During its formative years an important aspect of the business ethos was established, that of helping others. In 1949 Harold
22 | electrical wholesaler June 2017 From Rolls-Royce to tennis lines – the
The way we were: an early picture of production. By 1947, 12 employees were producing plastic cane, belting and piping at the rate of 26 tons per year.
established a profit sharing scheme which, although not long lived, underlined his commitment to the workforce and laid the foundations for the formation in 1962 of the Charlotte Marshall Charitable Trust. Charlotte was Harold’s wife for whom he founded C&C Marshall with the express intention of providing financial security for her and her father Charles. The Cirkets had six daughters and the company today remains predominately family-owned. The company has supported hundreds of charities and between 2007 and 2017, it donated more than £750,000 to worthwhile causes.
The era of cable management In 1970, the company entered into cable management – but it came about more by accident. Electrical work was being carried out in one of the Hastings factories and Eric Wood, manager of local wholesaler City Electrical Factors, visited to assess the requirements of the job. He spotted what he thought was plastic conduit coming off a production line
and asked about it. The product was, in fact, white rigid tubing for flush bends ordered by a sanitary ware client. But it got Marshall-Tufflex thinking; the business required a new high- volume market and conduit could be it. Research and investment followed and the factory tooled up for the two most popular sizes at the time. The first recorded sale of cable management product was in April 1970 to the Hastings region of CEF. There followed a swift learning curve, getting to grips with all the relevant regulations (IEE 14th Edition) British Standards (in particular BS 4607 Part 2) and trade bodies such as the Electrical and Electronic Industry Manufacturers Association and British Electrical Conduit Manufacturers. Long-standing Marshall-Tufflex employee Dudley Smart recalls: “We were into the arcane world of electrical strength, water absorption, flammability, insulation resistance, heat reversion and countless other tests which were to determine the exact recipes required for our PVC materials formulations.”
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