NEWS & PR

It Wasn't Meant to be Like This

05 October 2005

First thoughts were of a Marketing Group of Independent Engineering Distributors. The UK Independent Engineering Distributors were many and varied. In my case, the first thought of setting up a distributorship came in 1950 when, having responded on a sudden impulse to an offer of release from the Regular Army on payment of £50, I saw an advert in the local paper "Tool Shop for Sale" which sounded interesting.

I knew tools. I'd served a tool using apprenticeship from the age when a platform was needed to get me up to the vice and I had the blisters to prove it! From military service overseas where fags and drink were cheap, with few other opportunities to spend money, about £650 had accumulated in the bank. And that, coincidentally, was the figure being asked for the tool shop. However, then came the small print, "Stock at valuation" £800. After some delay the owner, with a job waiting that would leave him with more time for his favourite life style, fishing, and with no other applicants coming forward, the owner agreed to an instalment credit deal.

In due course there came a celebration. Saturday takings passed the £20 mark, but weekdays were quiet, and sometimes boring. Still, we decided to double the staff and old Frank, the pensioner who swept up the 80 square feet of floor space and ran errands (usually by bus with saws for sharpening) was joined by a school leaver to look after the shop. The pedal cycle with clip on two-stroke engine was replaced by a pre-war car which was used to call on the local factories and workshops to find out if there was anything they required-and they did-and things grew... and the firm joined the Association of Engineering Distributors. The small town small tool shop acquired a new label - "Engineering Distributor".

Fixed selling prices made the growth possible. Prices were controlled by Trade Associations in the then home of tools - Sheffield. As a consequence, trade in cutting tools (drills, milling cutters, saws etc) formed the largest part of the demand by the Engineering customer, competition was on service. Here the local supplier enjoyed some advantages. Profit margins for the small distributor certainly were small, but so were overheads and there was always the incentive that higher profit margins became available with increases in turnover.

However, a change in Government legislation ended price controls and the prospects for small traders in a world of price competition looked bleak. Thoughts moved towards possible solutions, a Union perhaps? Farmers, many of them were small independents and they had a strong union. Small food shops, first affected, some of them were getting together. Some Builders' Merchants had established a Federation and the British Hardware Federation was setting up a bulk buying operation for its Ironmonger members. The possibility of creating an organisation for Independent Engineering Distributors was attractive but had to be a pipe dream. None of us could spare the time from our own business until Ken Yarker called one day doing one of his jobs, this one as "Yarker Ltd.", a recently formed consultancy, promoting one of the products for which his company was responsible. Ken was a character very well known in the trade and in arguments about how best to get a tool from manufacturer to user, whether direct from manufacturer or through distributors, he had always voiced strong support for distributors. He had even published a book about it.

We chatted about the problems of the time and shared our thoughts about possible advantages of some form of joint action. A few days later came an invitation from Ken to join him and a few others at a meeting in Lutterworth to further discuss some form of joint action. Yarker Ltd had products to sell, with more to follow from his factories in Sheffield and Jersey, and had need of a distribution network. More to the point perhaps, though unsaid at the time, he had resigned from an executive role in Sheffield following a dispute about distribution policies and had a point to prove.

Had the snack lunch at Lutterworth been better, THS of a certainty would have been named differently. The Three Horse Shoes at Rugby became our next meeting place. Short names were the fashion of the time. Trust House Forte was changing to THF for instance. THS (from Three Horse Shoes) was suggested. It was non geographical - non personal - so why not. So THS it became.

Our first thoughts were to create a chain of Distributors nationwide (50 should be sufficient to provide full coverage) with a central administration offering to manufacturers and importers a chain of ready made outlets for their products. All members would be equal, with two shares each, in a "Collective". It was "Red" time when the words "Co-operative" and "Union" were best avoided. Of course we would not be able to compete in the trade for the mass market cutting tools (drills, milling cutters, saws etc) as they were the first to be subject to extreme price competition. So our early talk was of an organisation to handle products such as, perhaps, a newly invented diamond dresser for grinding wheels, a range of carbide tooling from the USA, screw cutting tools from Ireland etc.

Then from a Sheffield manufacturer came an offer of preferential terms on, hard to believe, cutting tools (drills, milling cutters, saws etc) as It wasn't meant to be like this. Excitement ensued - THS could be a Buying Group!

Membership grew slowly as Independents were ever reluctant to risk restrictions to their independence. From the two at the first meeting at Lutterworth on 24th April 1975 the number had grown to eighteen by November 20th when THS issued its first bulletin announcing a December 8th start.

Ken's expertise did not extend to routine office chores, but fortunately his wife Marjorie was more than capable of bridging the gap. They obtained a ready made Company, Shellrace Ltd., to provide administration for this and their other interests on a "Sub Contract" and "Payments by results" basis. In the event the office routines maintained a consistently high level of efficiency and so at an early stage the administration was being adequately rewarded, loans were repaid and there were profits left over for distribution to members. Sadly, having devoted so much of his time to the nurturing the the THS Tools Group Ken Yarker died on 20th April 1986 leaving his wife, with 3 young children, to continue to provide the administration for

THS, a task which she performed with efficiency and complete dedication until her retirement early in 1999. By this time THS was well able to administer its own affairs.

Membership grew steadily over the years and in due course attained the planned total of 50. Suppliers were 5 in number at the start up in December 1975. At that time expansion was restricted by a strong sense of obligation to be loyal to suppliers granting preferential terms to THS. When one cutting tools supplier quoted similar preferential terms to a competitive organisation, loyalty was forgotten and future applications judged solely on questions of mutual benefit. Supplier numbers increased rapidly.

Writing this some thirty years on one thought comes to mind - in our many lengthy discussions and plans for the future, no thought was given to the question of what to do when members reached their "free" days i.e. free medicines, free eye tests, free TV licences, free passports.

But be sure of your pension plans. There's no free beer!

Gordon Salisbury
Bristol 2005