MERCHANT FOCUS: HARRIS & BAILEY
Y
ou can get a long way in life by being in the right place at the right time, and having the right attitude. That’s definitely what Neville
Horsfield, believes.
The managing director of family-owned independent builders merchant Harris & Bailey, first joined the Croydon business as what he calls a store-boy, working on the trade counter.
“It was, to be honest, just a job at first. But the more I did it, the more I learned and the more I learned, the more I enjoyed it,” he says. After a while, the company moved premises, acquiring the former railway yard in Hastings Road where it remains to this day. Horsfield moved with the company, and, when an office job came up which was more focused on the heating and sanitaryware side, he took it. He says: “Harris & Bailey is the sort of company where everyone is happy to help out, when required, which is how I then became involved in looking after transport for a while. That continued, so I then attended night school so that I could become the transport manager, because that was what the job required me to do.”
Horsfield was in the right place at the right time when Brian Richardson, the then managing director, asked him to cover for the store manager in the plumbing and heating department. “I managed that for a few years, and developed a real understanding of that side of the business.”
Some years later, Horsfield was asked if he could try his hand at managing the building materials department which was struggling.
26
RIGHT PLACE: RIGHT TIME
Fiona Russell Horne meets a merchant that’s lasted 117 years by changing with the times.
“I was clearly the sort of person prepared to muck in and help out, so, although I was much more of a plumbing and heating man, Brian asked me to take over and see what I could do with it.”
As a leap of faith, it paid off as Horsfield did turn the building products arm round, and was made a director of the business on the strength of it. “By then, Brian had moved
up to be chairman, and our new managing director was Tom Hayman. I took over from him about two or three years ago,” he says. “I’ve always operated on the principle that if someone asks me to have a go, I will roll my sleeves up and get on with it. I like to prove that I can do something, to myself and to other people.”
The company is 117 years old, and remains
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net July 2025
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