Keeping it in the family
There’s one criterion a family firm must meet to join the Tercentenarian Club: 300 years in business
Some 50 years ago, an advert was placed in the papers. The 17th-century blanket company Early’s of Witney was about to celebrate 300 years in business and was wondering if there were any other family firms out there of similar longevity; if there were, a free lunch was on offer. Geoffrey Durtnell, the then-chairman of Kent-based builders R Durtnell & Sons, saw the advert and, conscious that his family business was some 425 years old, responded and a jolly good lunch was duly enjoyed. Indeed, it was such a success that the men agreed to meet again the following year and, lo, the Tercentenarian Club was born.
Such tenacious survival in the commercial world is no mean feat. Three hundred years ago Britain was a very different place indeed. Society was still largely agricultural, with the Industrial Revolution some half a century off. George I was on the throne, and pretty unpopular, too, derided for his wooden manner and inability to speak English. Catholics and Protestants were still pitted against each other, with Whigs and Tories at loggerheads in Parliament, which was about to have its first de facto prime minister as Robert Walpole was propelled into office by the financial ruin of thousands of investors in the South Sea Company. Robinson Crusoe was the contemporary bestseller and George Frideric Handel topped the Georgian charts.
LP Hartley’s aphorism that “the past is another country; they do things differently there” may have become somewhat hackneyed but the landscape of Britain back then is almost unrecognisable. While most people do do things differently, not all of us do. Remarkably, there are, today, some dozen companies – including a boatbuilder, a butcher, a bank, a brewery, a wine merchant and a hat shop – still in the same family ownership and plying more or less the same trade then as now. And while, sadly, one of the two co-founders has since closed down, their pride in familial business
and commitment to future generations runs through these other members of the Tercentenarian Club, still plying their trade.
The members take it in turns to host the club’s annual get together, which seems to be more of a catch-up than a ruthlessly commercial networking event. R Durtnell & Sons, a specialist building contractor, was in sufficiently fulsome spirit to host the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2018. This year’s event is to be hosted by the newest member, Webster & Horsfall, Birmingham-based steel wire and rope manufacturers, established in 1720, which made the first transatlantic telegraph cable, laid in 1866. While the exact details for the annual event are being fine-tuned, the current idea is for the event to be held in September and to involve a visit to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, where an exhibition dedicated to the company’s long history is running until 4 October.
A SELECT LIST OF MEMBERS
Other members include wine merchants Berry Bros & Rudd, hatters Lock & Co, bankers C Hoare & Co, Berkshire-based boatbuilders Peter Freebody, Kent-based brewery Shepherd Neame, south-eastbased funeral directors CPJ Field, and Birmingham- and Bedworth-based regalia and insignia manufacturers Toye, Kenning & Spencer, with the oldest member seeming to be butcher RJ Balson, in Bridport, Dorset, founded in 1515, “when Henry VIII was in his sixth year as king”, observes Richard Balson, the 25th-generation family member to take the helm of his family business, which rarely employs non-family members. Having survived “floods, fires, plagues, wars and recessions”, he jokes that “there’s a rumour that there was some of our meat on the Mary Rose – you try disproving it”.
It would seem that when it comes to eligibility, a little judicious discretion can be exercised. While 300 years in the same family would seem to be the basic criterion, Durtnell explains that a little fluidity can be countenanced, “basically if they’re good sorts”. Hence the inclusion of Fortnum & Mason, which, while certainly old enough, has been controlled since 1951 by the Weston family, rather than the descendants of the eponymous founders. As observed by Balson, “it’s worth it for the perks and the prestige. They wined and dined us fantastically when they first hosted in 2013 – it was a jolly good day with champagne and access to the parts of the shop normally closed to the public.”
The result of the annual gathering is that a certain camaraderie between members has been fostered. On the day I spoke to Richard Balson, he’d just received a Christmas card from Richard Freebody, the managing director of Peter Freebody, boat builders on the middle Thames in Hurley, Berkshire. And, of course, there’s a corresponding sadness when a member stops trading as Durtnell observed, “all of us walk a tightrope”. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast its last bells in March 2017, after the owners, Alan and Kathryn Hughes, decided to sell the premises, with the demand for their product in sharp decline year on year. The family had been based in Whitechapel since 1570, in the same premises since 1738, and was the company which cast Big Ben. Master hatter Jay Vaghela notes wistfully that the Whitechapel Bell Foundry had made the bell that rings on the door at Lock & Co. “It was very sad when they went. They had a skill for a part of life which has now gone.”
Such closures stand as a stark reminder of the vagaries of business, as there’s always an element of luck involved in such longevity. These firms are aware of the need to remain relevant to meet the needs and demands of today’s consumers, tempering pride in their heritage with a determination not to rest on their laurels. Richard Freebody says that as a company, he and his fellow family members are “always pushing into the future, not
There’s a rumour that our meat was on the Mary Rose – try disproving it
harking back to the past”, revealing that their new craft may look traditional but that they incorporate the most sophisticated technology such as their clients would expect from their high-spec cars, and offer a mooring service that includes having the vessels ready when customers want them.
Vaghela echoes this. “Heritage plays a strong part but we’re moving with the times. We need to cater for both old and new customers, traditional ones and younger ones, and so we have a website where our products can be accessed worldwide,” he explains.
Like Janus, with one eye on the past and one towards the future, the current incumbents seem to see themselves as custodians of the business. Lizzy Rudd, chairman of London-based Berry Bros & Rudd, sees herself as a steward of her family’s legacy: “I believe family businesses have a shared mentality, which is based on taking a longterm view. In my view, everything I do today is about investing in the future for my children and all the next generation of Berry and Rudd families. I’m here as a steward to do as much as I can to grow the business, to make it even better than it is already, in order to pass it on as an even better business to the next generation. This is the real driver that I see in being a family business,” she says.
This consciousness of future family generations is a recurrent theme. Robert Horsfall, director and secretary of Webster & Horsfall, says that “because we’re a family business, we think long-term”. The firm, which is looking at diversifying into green energy at Tyseley Energy Park, attributes its longevity to amazing staff, its location in Birmingham as a centre of industry, and their focus on innovation – indeed, these three strands form the theme of the current exhibition.
This underlying idea of guardianship encourages an element of caution, both practical and financial, which has enabled these businesses to survive. Richard Balson says that not expanding the business has allowed the family to maintain a level of personal service, which has in turn ensured customer loyalty. “The main thing has been keeping it small. If you’re offering a personal service, you can only do that in any one place at any one time. I’ve seen it happen so many times: people expand as they get successful and when you’re dealing with cash and goods, you only need a couple of dishonest people for things to start to unravel.”
For Balson, it’s the interaction with customers that is the key to a thriving business. “We sell good, local meat, fully traceable from field to fork. We like to make shopping a pleasure and have a bit of banter with our customers who we know by their first names, having served generations of local families. People like that sort of thing - it offers a completely different type of experience to shopping in a supermarket. It’s so impersonal that there’s no fun in shopping like that - it’s just a bloody chore.”
PIVOTAL MOMENTS
Richard Freebody also testifies to a certain practical caution in his family history, which dates from 1257 when the family worked as fishermen and ferrymen on the Thames. “There have been some pivotal moments in our history. My father was a particular source of inspiration to me – he had a tough time during the 1960s when fibreglass was introduced to the boatbuilding trade. It seemed that everyone else was moving over to it but he stuck with what he knew: beautiful boats in times, shapes and designs that people hanker after.” Today, with prices starting from around £180,000 plus VAT, and specialising in slipper launches, such consistency seems to have paid off.
One wonders, however, if there is an element of familial pressure to follow the generation upon generation of forebears to ensure the business can continue? It would seem that the younger members are either already involved in some capacity or are keen to become so. Rudd says there’s no expectation, “however we are keen to keep them abreast with what is going on through family familiarisation days and ensuring they are invited to the annual Company Gathering and events that run throughout the calendar”.
But beneath the jollity of their annual gathering, there is also a professional thread that runs through the club’s narrative. As Freebody explains, “There’s a similarity, which runs through the intricacies of family businesses that doesn’t exist elsewhere, and we talk about those shared experiences.” So it would seem that the three defining features required for a family business to survive 300 years may be commitment, caution and custodianship. Long may they last.