I was asked recently how many years has the company been established and for once I declined to give the facile reply "too bloody long!" and actually gave away the date of our first ventures being 1952. I was only a school kid then and aspiring to go to Oxbridge with my classmates Malcolm Mitchinson, Frank Roberts, Malcolm Phillips and John Clegg. We all made it but the most successful of our group was Jimmy Armfield who took up a career in Soccer,
although Arnold was a Rugby Union strength under the formidable Wilbur Howarth, the geography supremo. I am actually listening now to Jimmy OBE as he summarises the Arsenal - Man U match which will determine the result of the premiership this year 2008/9.
He's pushing 73 now and I'm glad to say all the aforementioned old boys are still going strong having got through the dangerous years between 55 and 65 which has claimed so many good men.
I reflect, that a company has to be like a chameleon and change its aspect on a regular basis. We had tremendous success with importing Italian pottery and porcelain in the early years. The customers had never seen such attractive lines and each successive Blackpool Gift Fair saw the company expanding by virtue of our quest for the best range in the country, but as a plant gives out green shoots, flourishes and eventually decays so does every range of goods. You have to be one step ahead.
And this is why we went into Italian furniture and added a manufacturing arm to our facilities. We were able, in the seventies, to convert baroque Italian frames into fine finished furniture which appeared to be made in Florence and Verona but actually came from Blackpool. In those days the choice of cover was simple. You got red, green, beige or gold draylon. I wish it were as simple now - we have to handle hundreds of fabrics, texture, shades and styles. Just recently we completed a job for Hell's Kitchen, the ITV show and each chair of the 76 ordered was different in its specification. Amazingly the order came out well and we continue to derive spin off orders for our Georgian spoon backs.
As the sales of Italian reproduction furniture reached a peak we were looking to the far east for sources of Glass and Metal and luckily we found a rich vein of suppliers in the Guandong area where Chinese partners had sucked in investing entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. These partnerships gave rise to a super growth of manufacturing capacity. I was amazed at the price structures being used compared to frequent price increases from the European suppliers, in China the prices go DOWN instead of up. They pass on economies of scale and at the beginning the Chinese Government gave away bonuses on export orders. China was amassing dollars and despite the crowds of Chinese gamblers tripping to Las Vegas they could not spend all the dollars they were earning from the West.
Now however, it's all change again. Sales are slowing up because people are worried about their jobs and whether they have too much month left at the end of the money. We are ready now with a surprise infusion of new lines, if I said they were 'Cuddly' and 'Green' you might have a clue. Watch this space.