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TRADELINESTHE NEWS AND VIEWS AT KENT BLAXILL 2013 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE: No 68

175 Years Built On Trust

kentblaxill.co.uk Anniversary Issue 2013 Tradelines

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John Kent: founder, ownerand partner, 1838-96

John Kent’s original cash bookKent & Sons at 104 High Street, Colchester,pictured between 1860 and 1878

n A family fun day,followed by staff party,

went with a swing as KentBlaxill celebrated its 175thyear anniversary in June.TV wildlife presenter Nigel

Marven, accompanied by someunusual pets, was the star guestat the fun day which wasopened by Colchester

Family fun day and staffparty hit high notes

Fun fuels 175thanniversary party

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The party begins:Colchester MayorColin Sykes andfriends open the

fun day

Snakes alive:Nigel Marven

with his Africanball python

Tradelines Anniversary Issue 2013 kentblaxill.co.uk

TRADELINES

Fine dining withFarrow & Balln Joa Studholme, Farrow &

Ball’s internationalcolour consultant, gave aninspirational talk at theTalbooth in May to 50 KentBlaxill paying guests. As well as giving advice on

putting colours together, sheoutlined some of the latesttrends including “what is hot andwhat is not”. The Farrow & Ballcolour range was analysed,including the latest shades andmixes, before a question andanswer session.“It was a very inspirational talk

and it was very enthusiasticallyreceived,” said Andy Cherry,decorative sales manager. “Wehave had some very positivefeedback and we will certainly belooking to do another event.”The event, which was

organised by Kent Blaxill designerpaints consultant AndreaWilliamson, included a three-course meal and champagne.

Norwich customersback celebrations

n Customers arrived ingood numbers to

support the Norwich branch’s25th anniversary tradeevening – despite a day of rain.“We had 12 manufacturer

stands and an extremely good turnout. It was a very good night,” saidbranch manager Chris Lee.“We had lots of 25% off

vouchers, a dice competition fora Dulux toy dog raffle and lots ofgiveaways, as well as a hog roast,music, and dancing at the end ofthe evening.”

n A giant outdoor game of snakes andladders has been built at King’s Ford

Infants School in Colchester by KB staff to helpchildren develop their maths skills. The garden classroom, which was one of Kent

Blaxill’s 175th anniversary projects, was openedrecently by Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell.It features a numbered stepping-stone snake in

an area enclosed by railings to which have beenattached four 8 ft long snake shapes.The children, aged from four to seven, will jump

and count their way along the stepping stones,improving their numeracy skills up to 30, as well asthe physical skills of balancing and jumping,according to head teacher Pam Rose.“King’s Ford Infant School and Nursery is

thrilled to be part of Kent Blaxill’s 175 year

celebrations and to benefit from their hard workwhich will enrich our children’s learning, wellbeingand development,” added Pam.The giant snake head and tail were made from

marine ply by Malcolm Bennett to a design byJasper Smathers. They were painted by ChrisParker, with other work carried out by staff fromevery KB department.The snakes on the railings provide additional

activity options for the children as they double upas blackboards and magnetic boards, while thereare also two benches for children to watch from.In another area, the school is developing a

Spiritual Garden where KB volunteers haveinstalled a calming water feature along with pottingbenches, cold frames and raised beds for growingflowers and vegetables.

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Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 ... and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897Edwin F Blaxill – JohnKent’s partner from 1867

Snake garden to charminfant maths skills

Sir Bob Russell cuts the ribbon to open the snake garden. The adults pictured are, from left to right:David Canning, chairman of the governors; Sir Bob Russell, Colchester MP; Simon Blaxill, KBmanaging director; Monica Hartley, PA to the KB directors; and Pam Rose, head teacher. Thechildren pictured are all members of the school council.

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kentblaxill.co.uk Anniversary Issue 2013 Tradelines

n A documentary-stylehistory of Kent Blaxill

can now be viewed on thecompany website atwww.kentblaxill.co.uk/about-us/company-history.Written and produced by

KB’s IT expert Chris Nellis, itcharts the company’s growthover 175 years against abackdrop of world events.Chris, who has been writing

and filming for many years,compiled the video from varioussources, providing the voiceoverhimself and adding theaccompanying music. Additionalresearch was by Monica Hartleyand Kevin Sturdy.“I researched it over a

couple of months and then putit together in a week,” saidChris. “Curiously, completely bychance, it ended up as 17.5minutes long.” Other projectsby Chris can be viewed atwww.basedonnon-events.co.uk

n Lycra-clad Kent Blaxillstaff, customers and

suppliers will be embarkingon a 175-mile cycle ride onSeptember 12 with the aim ofraising more than £10,000 forthe CLIC Sargent cancercharity.The KB ‘Tour’, which is one

of the Kent Blaxill 175thanniversary events, will call in atall the company’s branches,starting at Braintree and finishingat Colchester.An estimated 56 riders will be

taking part in the event, includingriders from most KB branches.Riders will be organised into four

teams, with at least one riderfrom each team on the road atany time. Some riders will becompleting up to 100 miles.“It promises to be an exciting

event, for which those takingpart have been in training allyear,” said Simon Blaxill,managing director.

nOnline trading at Kent Blaxill hasbeen taking major strides forward

with a wide range of designer paints andwallpapers now available for purchase.“We have made good progress in the

company’s 175th year, and the next 6-12months will see even more exciting develop-ments” said Gareth Chambers, online tradingmanager, who has been developing the site.Now available online are the complete

collections from Farrow & Ball, Little Greene,Earthborn, Sanderson and Paint Library. “Wewill also be extending our wallpaper ranges

so that we offer an enticing collection of allthe latest trends and fashions,” said Gareth.

The company is aiming to have a compre-hensive decorative range online by the endof the year. This will lead on to a new facilityfor trade account holders to order productsand manage their accounts online.Kent Blaxill will also be developing more

user-friendly versions of its online offeringsfor mobile and tablet devices.Gareth has been assisted by Richard

Cutter, online trading assistant, and AndreaWilliams, Karen Dixon and Bev Pengelly inthe interiors department who assist withstock and customer enquiries. The goods arepackaged and despatched by Craig Pearsonand Tom Bartholomew to complete the all-round service.

TRADELINES

A lease was taken out on 3A High Street in 1906

Anna Blaxill: proprietor in1896 and partner 1897 to 1900

The pre-First World War delivery service

Online trading takes off

Download KBdocumentary

In training for the KB 175-mile ‘Tour’

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Tradelines Anniversary Issue 2013 kentblaxill.co.uk

TRADELINES: KENT BLAXILL HISTORYTIM

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The delivery fleet in the 1950s

Unloading glass

Delivery vehicles in the 1980s withtransport manager Gordon Minter

standing in the foreground

The Flea (a Morris 12) was the pride and joy of thegarage in the 1930s – although it was less popularwith glaziers as there was no passenger seat

Ben Kent: managingdirector 1897-1935

The delivery fleet in the 1930s One staff outing in the late 1930s was a Thames boattrip. A train was hired to take staff up to London

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This selection of photographs showsthe company’s transport fleet atvarious stages of its development, aswell capturing some serious andlight-hearted moments from acrossthe past 175 years.

kentblaxill.co.uk Anniversary Issue 2013 Tradelines

KENT BLAXILL HISTORY: TRADELINES

175 yearsin pictures

Carnival spacemen in 1982 – although notstrictly the correct theme for that year’s parade

Lowering plate glass in the 1960s

Guests at theopening of thenew Layer Roadsite in 1963

Kent Blaxill shortlybefore the SecondWorld War

Firemen tackle thedevastating fire thatdestroyed the companyheadquarters in 1952

A delivery lorry in 1938 E Alec (Alderman) Blaxill:Mayor 1909-10 and 1937-38

Queen Mary visited to Colchester in 1938 when E Alec Blaxill was mayor. He is seated to her left

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Tradelines Anniversary Issue 2013 kentblaxill.co.uk

TRADELINES: KENT BLAXILL HISTORY

How Kent Blaxill grew intoan East Anglian Company

KB’s oldest customer

n The success of Kent Blaxill isdown to the loyalty of its

customers, with some accounts havingbeen open for over 60 years. One suchcustomer is E May & Son Ltd whichitself has been trading from Langenhoesince 1889. This small family company is now run by

the fourth generation, Philip and DavidMay, who have seen their business evolveover the years from building houses torepair and maintenance in schools andpublic buildings for the local council, andmore recently returning to the specialistand bespoke joinery that their companystarted with. This enables them to dorenovation and refurbishment in oldermore historically significant properties thatrequire more specialist skills.“Things have changed a lot over the

years,” said Philip, “but the lovely thing iswe still have clients that used us in the 60sthat still use our services now.Simon Blaxill, KB managing director,

said: ‘In our 175th year it has been good tolook at other family businesses that KentBlaxill has been associated with and welook forward to many more years oftrading with Philip and David.”

CUSTOMER FOCUS

Philip and David May

Deputy prime ministerNick Clegg tours KentBlaxill during 175th

anniversary celebrations

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Alec E Blaxill: MD,1935-52

Donald Blaxill: joint MD

John Kent: joint MD

Mary Blaxill, wife of chairman Dr BernardBlaxill, opens the Layer Road site

n The Kent Blaxill story began 175years ago in Colchester High Street

on March 24, 1838, when John Kentcelebrated his 33rd birthday by openingan oil and colour shop. His rented storeat 104 High Street stood in the shadow ofColchester’s Norman castle in the heartof the town. As the business prospered, John Kent went

into partnership with his sons, John andBenjamin, as Kent and Sons. But after theuntimely death of both of them, he invited hisson-in-law Edwin Blaxill to join him in a partner-ship in 1868 and Kent & Blaxill was born. An expanding business required

more space and in 1850 JohnKent was able to buy theshop he had rented for 13years, which was followedin the succeeding decadesby numbers 103 to 96High Street, as well asNo3, in addition to prop-erties in Culver Street andLion Walk, and finally 121High Street in 1950. After John Kent’s death in 1896,

the company was run by a further four gener-ations of Kents and Blaxills before in 1963 itbegan the transformation from a Colchesterfirm into the East Anglian company it is today.At the end of the 1950s Colchester High

Street had become increasingly choked bytraffic and parking problems. This led toconsideration of what was at first a contro-versial suggestion to move the company to anout of town site – an idea that eventually ledto Kent Blaxill leasing a 6.5 acre site in LayerRoad. After extensive planning, thecompany’s current headquarter site was

opened in 1963 to the sounds of theband of the 1st Battalion of the

Sherwood Foresters in front of1,300 invited guests. The wisdom of the movequickly became apparentwith the company turnoverbreaking through the£1million barrier in 1965.And while the companyhad planned to maintain a

retail in presence inColchester High Street, it was

soon clear that the Layer Road site

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KENT BLAXILL HISTORY: TRADELINES

nOne of the first bloodtransfusion panels in the

country was built up by AlecE Blaxill, who was managingdirector of Kent Blaxill for 17years. He was prompted toset up the service in 1934after Colchester Rotary Clubheard about a patient dying inthe town because no donorwas available.A natural organiser, he

initially established a donor panelamong Kent Blaxill staff. By thetime of the Second World War

he had built up two donor panels– an ‘emergency’ panel of 450donors and a National panel of1,750 donors from acrossColchester and surroundingvillages who provided blood forrefrigeration. Every other Sunday a

combined civilian and military

team went out into the villagesaround Colchester and returnedwith around 50 bottles of blood. Throughout the Dunkirk

period and other crises, thepanels kept the 600-bedColchester military hospital fullysupplied with all its blood andplasma needs.

After Alec’s death, one localdoctor commented: “Alec Blaxill,from long and frequent practice,was often better than a doctor atinserting the needle into a diffi-cult vein, and would conduct thewhole operation himself. Everyfresh advance in the science ofblood grouping found him readyfor it, and the fame of his bloodbank was such that if a rare typeof blood was urgently needed,Colchester would have requeststo send it sometimes 100s ofmiles away. I often think thatAlec Blaxill save more lives thanmost doctors do.”Alec E Blaxill was awarded

an MBE for his work and wasalso made an Honorary Member of Colchester MedicalSociety, a rare honour for a non-medical man.

Surviving the firen A passing police car spotted wisps

of smoke rising through the cellarflaps in the pavement outside 101-104High Street on a Saturday in May 1952.With the store shut for lunch, fireman

were at the scene within three minutes ofreceiving the call for what was to be themost dramatic day in Kent Blaxill’s history.But by then flames were already breaking

out through the roof of the shop and anintense blaze was under way in the timberframed buildings which contained quantitiesof highly flammable oils and paints.The blaze, described in local paper

reports as the most dangerous and destruc-tive seen in the town for many years, wassoon being fought by nearly 80 firemen.The company’s situation was dire, but

staff rallied, working over the weekend toenable the company to reopen for businessfrom its other sites on the Monday morning.

Transfusionservice that savedmany lives

Alec E Blaxill (right) and his father Alderman Blaxill visitColchester hospital on Christmas day 1938

Firemen from across northeast Essexfought the blaze in May 1952

kentblaxill.co.uk Anniversary Issue 2013 Tradelines

The opening of the Layer Road showrooms in 1966 Christopher Blaxill:MD from 1963 to 1989

Harold Whybrow:general manager in 1954

John S Kent: KB’sfirst sales director

was a much more profitable location. So in1967 the company finally sold up in ColchesterHigh Street.There followed the acquisition of Ridleys

Paints in 1971, which provided Kent Blaxillwith branches in Bury St Edmunds,Woodbridge and Sudbury. These werefollowed by the acquisition of Gibbs andDandy at Frinton in 1985.The current managing director Simon

Blaxill, representing the sixth generation of thefounding families, took over from his father in1989. His tenure has seen the opening of anew Kent Blaxill branch at Braintree in 2008.He also set up Global Stone, initially as a KentBlaxill subsidiary, which imports and whole-sales natural stone for landscaping.The company’s 175th anniversary

celebrations this year were marked by a visitfrom deputy prime minister Nick Clegg whoheard that Kent Blaxill still remains a familyfirm at heart with more than 10% of itsemployees having been with the company formore than 25 years.

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Tradelines Anniversary Issue 2013

Website:www.kentblaxill.co.uk

kentblaxill.co.uk

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Simon Blaxill: MD since 1989

175th anniversary: deputy prime minister Nick Cleggvisits accompanied by Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell

The launch of the KB Braintree branch in 2008

TRADELINES

A walk on the wildside of Colchester

n Dot, the KB sponsored giraffe, andother members of the Stand Tall

campaign herd have been pulling in thecrowds around Colchester town centre.And with both Colchester Zoo and the

Beatles celebrating their 50th anniversariesthis year, four giraffes created a stir in AbbeyRoad by re-enacting the Beatles’ iconicalbum cover. The one at the back doing aGeorge Harrison impersonation is Dot. Dot is now situated in Head Street at the

junction with St John’s Street until August 26.The Stand Tall giraffe trail is part of

Colchester Zoo’s 50th birthday celebrations.An app enabling you to follow the trail canbe downloaded from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mainwood.android.standtall Crossing an Abbey Road zebra to superstardom? Well, it worked for the Beatles!

Mayor Colin Sykes, watched bythe Dulux dog and friends.“The fun day was a great

success with a steady flow ofvisitors all day, including childrenfrom seven primary schools, whogot involved in everything fromdecorating cakes to smashingcrockery,” said Simon Blaxill,managing director.As well as 20 manufacturer

‘how to stands’, there wasColchester Zoo’s Bug Zoo, arange of games and stalls, historicKent Blaxill photographs, and artfrom nearby King’s Ford School.Colchester fire brigade also puton a demonstration.Nigel Marven, who has

presented TV programmesincluding ‘Prehistoric Park’ and‘Whale Adventure’, was a big

attraction with his pets – abullfrog, an African ball pythonand baby turkeys.The event raised £1,250 for

the CLIC Sargent charity.In the evening, KB personnel

from across East Angliaassembled for the staff party,which featured music by Rick andUs, the band led by retired KBemployee Rick Hale. The warm-up act was KB’s Sam Young.“People from across the

company really entered into the

spirit of the event with plenty ofdancing and merriment,” saidSimon.The event was held in a

marquee on the company carpark and also featured a home-cooked curry and free bar, beforespecially arranged buses arrivedto take staff home across EastAnglia. “A great job was done by

Monica Hartley in organising anddrumming up enthusiasm for theevent,” said Simon.

Fun fuels 175thanniversary partyFrom page 1

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