75 Years of Thorpes #5 - Into the modern world
In our last blog, we covered John A. Thorpe taking the helm and the semi-retirement of founder John “Jack” Thorpe before his foray into boat building (you can check that out here!)
In the final installment of our 75 Years Series of blogs, our current Managing Director joins the company, we undergo two rebrands, diversify into a new industry and grow our group of companies - this could be a long read so settle in!
A familiar name
The 1980’s brought a number of changes with it, big hair, leg-warmers, and the Rubix cube to name but a few, but the biggest change at JT Thorpe and Son was the addition of the third generation of the Thorpe family into the company.
Following his grandfather John and his father John, the latest imaginatively named John Thorpe followed in their footsteps not just in name, but in the world of business as well, with a fresh-faced John C Thorpe joining the company in the summer of 1980.
At this point, the company boasted a 50-strong workforce, with an experienced core built of long-term employees who were the heart and soul of the business. The move into educational furniture had been a masterstroke, with opportunities up and down the country and an order book that was rarely anything but full.
However, not wanting to rest on their laurels, both Johns spotted an opening within healthcare and laboratory furniture, another niche that provided development and expansion opportunities.
This move heralded the start of a particularly successful period for the company, with all three Johns involved within the business in some form (even if ‘Jack’s’ personal undertakings continued to provide something of a headache for his son and grandson, with his latest passion project being the renovation of classic cars such as a 1935 Austin 7).
After successfully navigating the company for nearly a quarter of a century, John handed over the reins of the company to John in 1988 following a graduated retirement, which is going to make this whole blog a lot easier to follow.
Into the office
John Thorpe makes no secret of the fact that it has not always been smooth sailing, and as many other leaders of SMEs will attest, progress is rarely linear, and sometimes it is necessary to take one step back in order to take two forward. This was certainly the case in 1996.
The Great Glen site became our only base of operations during a testing time for the company in 1996.
Due to a combination of factors, with the main culprit a sizeable bad debt, JT Thorpe and Sons underwent a hugely testing time which resulted in the sale and closure of all of our sites bar the original factory in Great Glen, and a complete rebrand into Thorpes of Great Glen.
John had endured a rough time, but thanks to his genuine and unmistakable passion for the company, and his unwavering belief in the business and its people, he set out to take us in an entirely new, brave but potentially rewarding direction: commercial fit-out in the City of London.
And so, armed with nothing more than a London A-to-Z and a Yellow Pages (Google it people under 30), John took the plunge and set out looking for our first clients in this novel industry.
After all, we had a sizeable, well-equipped factory, we had a talented workforce used to working on high-quality products under time pressure - who is to say that we could not make a success of it?
A show of faith
Two of our early clients would go on to provide the perfect case study of everything that is great about this industry in which we find ourselves.
John’s mantra, which is repeated around the office with admirable regularity, is that it is “all about people”, and it is hard to argue with the evidence.
Perhaps swayed by John’s unwavering belief, or perhaps even, his unwavering stubbornness, two larger Main Contractors decided to take a chance on this relatively unknown company, providing the opportunity to work on two projects and let us prove that we are as good as our word.
This chance was gratefully received and must have gone quite well, because more than 25 years later both Parkeray and Overbury remain two of our most important clients.
To say these projects provided a springboard would be something of an understatement.
The overall goal had been simple: work with some of the country’s foremost architects, designers, and contractors, whilst retaining those values that had served us so well in the past.
In the years that followed this is exactly what we achieved, with a number of prestigious, challenging, and rewarding projects completed for an ever-growing list of reputable clients.
By 2010 our turnover had reached £5m, growing by more than 150% following the financial crisis.
Some of our early commercial projects, from the late 90’s to 2010
Never standing still
One thing that readers of this blog series will have established is that Thorpes Joinery, in all its guises, has never stood still, and as we came to the end of the 10’s, an opportunity had started to formulate in the minds of John and his trusted management team. Our turnover had doubled again since it’s record-breaking levels just a couple of years previously, and our Great Glen factory, home for 50 years, had reached its limit.
That is not to say that things were not going well. We had a number of excellent working relationships, a profitable group including the booming Fabric Systems (since purchased by Kvadrat), worked on award-winning projects and had a 70-ish strong team that was cohesive and creative. But. Things could be even better.
The decision was taken in 2015 that it was time to move.
A momentous year
2016 and 2017 were therefore something of a momentous period in the lives of all of us at Thorpes Joinery.
Of course, Leicester City won the Premier League and embarked on a European tour, but the second most significant event for all of us was the move to our custom-built facility in Market Harborough.
Consolidating several sites and teams under one roof, the facility planning and build had been something of a labour of love, especially for our Operations Director David Dean, but it would be hard to argue against the value of this monumental effort - with a fantastic end result providing a platform for us to grow further and realise the potential of the company and those working within it.
There’s no ‘I’ in team
Given the value that all of our Managing Directors have placed upon their staff, it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge their contribution to the company's growth, direction, and culture throughout the years.
At all levels and in all roles, we have members of staff who have stayed with us for decades, with a few even able to share that they have worked for the company under all three John Thorpes.
It’s a cliché, but something I hope has been proven to be more than just words across the past few blogs is that we fully believe our company’s greatest asset is truly the people who work within it.
What’s next?
Since the move to Market Harborough we have grown steadily and consistently, but, that is all covered elsewhere on the website so have a browse to see our most recent history.
What does the future look like beyond that? Who really knows.
If I have learned one thing from writing these blogs (a process I have thoroughly enjoyed, I must add), it is that the direction of Thorpes Joinery is rarely predictable. What we hope, however, is that we can replicate and maintain the very things that have made the past 75 years so notable: be sought after, be great to work with, be honest, and finally, be helpful.
Thank you for reading, here’s to the next 75 years!