1936-1937

About this time our old friend Dick Long turned up again, in rather bad circumstances. He had been mighty unfortunate and knocked about some - so we made him Stock Records Clerk and occasional Town Traveller for Ferodo, and from then on, in very cramped space, the battle was on. We also took over from Reynolds, the Silvertown Milking Machine Rubberware Agency, and later added to it the Silvertown Belting. Our turnover went up by leaps and bounds, so did our expenses; but we soon found how poorly E. Reynolds & Co. had done their job of service on Ferodo, and how glad our original clientele was to have us back with our specialised effort and knowledgable service once more. Actually the £1,000 odd loss we never felt. For some time the worst loss was the services of the Auckland Branch of Reynolds & Co., who really did do a good job; but by this time Phelan and Lonsdale had opened a branch in Auckland, and they took on the sale of Ferodo in that area, but never enthusiastically or successfully.

Owing to the necessity of keeping the clientele of Silvertown Rubberware in the Auckland territory, which was large, we took on a stock-room in Auckland and employed one junior salesman there to keep the business going, Phil Bond; Mr. Carlyle or I occasionally visiting him and giving him help along. This was not very satisfactory, and we decided in the middle of 1936 that we would have to open a Branch in Auckland again ourselves. About this time, our old friend, Mr Arthur Harrison, the engineering brains of Charles Palmer Ltd., who had put Renold on the map in that area, had become dissatisfied and was starting business with another employee of Palmer's, on their own in Auckland, having secured one or two small Agencies, and hoping to get our support.

Complete Staff In 1936.

Back Row (from left): J Bosher, J Young, I Napier, J Blair, P Bond, A Baker

Middle Row (from left): E Myers, A Williams, M Kealey, A. L Christian, I. M Gibson, R. R Searle, G Cutforth

Front Row (from left): R. H Wear, W. H Carlyle, A. R Christian, F. W Martin, E. C Parker, J Rowntree

After unsuccessful attempts to keep Mr Harrison selling Renold at Palmer's, we finally decided to support him just as far as finance would permit, and gave him a stock of Ferodo and one or two other of our lines to work in with the small Agencies he had got. Unfortunately the partnership of Angell-Harrison was not happy - another case of two employees being happy under one employer, but entirely unsuitable tempermentally and otherwise when working on their own as partners. The result was that we either had to see Mr Harrison, of whom we were very fond and had a great respect, robbed of all his savings and likely to see the end of his ambition instead of the beginning, or dig him out of it somehow. It took a long while, and I soon found that I was battling with people who had really got Harrison into it with no other objective in view than to use him and abuse him. Fortunately for Harrison they got the idea that they could use and abuse me, and for a while I let them, until I was top dog and then they found out they had just gone a bit too far, and we were successful in purchasing the shares of Mr Angell at par, and incorporating Angell-Harrison into A.R. Christian Ltd. While this was a going concern, it was not yet profitable, but the capacity and effort of Mr Harrison under the new regime I felt sure would eventually bring that Branch to profit, and serve the purpose of establishing A.R. Christian's lines in Auckland at the same time.

Miss Christian, who had been associated with Ferodo and all our lines all her business life - quite a number of years - eventually went to Auckland, and although Mr Harrison was in charge, he was mostly outside, and she did a very good job in running that Branch, working it up enthusiastically to a real business.

Our Auckland Establishment and Six-Sevenths of the Staff, 1937.

We had during this time had considerable trouble with our Christchurch Stockist's proposition of Ferodo, As a last resort and final attempt, we had been sponsoring one, O.A. Margetts, who was quite an able salesman; but apparently was no commercial manager, or he was short of capital, or both, and the Auckland Branch had not got fairly on its feet before we found out that we faced a pretty hefty possible loss of £2,000 from Margetts in Christchurch, unless something was done to save the position. However, we gradually improved things in this direction, and although we were still uneasy, we were pleased to see Ferodo turnover coming back to normal in that area.

In November, 1936, I decided that by hook or by crook, we had to have our building for our own and only use, but I knew that if I suggested it, Phelan & Lonsdale would wish to penalise me for the balance of their lease; but by devious means I was able to get them to accept an option under certain conditions to clear out at the end of November, 1936. They were fortunate and we were fortunate. They got the proper premises and they quit, and what a relief. We had then room for our stock and the staff we hadn't been able to accommodate before.

Soon after they left our building, we accidentally heard that they were going to set up a Brake Lining of their own, and then drop Ferodo, so we forestalled that gradual process of killing Ferodo, and insisted on taking over their stock at once, and being again the Sole Distributor for our own line throughout New Zealand.

1937 saw us with a specialised Blackstone staff, a specialised Ferodo staff and a specialised Renold staff, all growing and all taking just a little bit more finance than we could ever find; but somehow scrambling through, and each year making bigger profits.

I must not leave out what I think was the most interesting specialised sale effort and certainly the most profitable specialised sale effort that I ever organised. That was in connection with the Tapley Brake Tester and Indicator. We started, Carlyle and I, early in 1936, to boost this thing with the Authorities, in an attempt to get some sort of legislation protective for pedestrian and motorist alike, similar to what was appertaining in Canada and some parts of England, by making it compulsory that brakes should be tested periodically and Certificate of Fitness given. Obviously this would assist in the sale of brake lining, and we hoped Ferodo, more than anything else, and at the same time would necessitate every Garage-man having facture for testing brakes and periodical visits for this purpose. I wouldn't like to say the number of hours spent by Mr Carlyle and myself with various officials of the Government, Police, Insurance, and so on, in this country, and the thousands of demonstrations we gave Public Works and Army Authorities and so on, but after twelve months' hard work, we began to see light, and actually legislation was introduced on the lines that we had suggested, which was that every car must have its brakes and other vital parts inspected at least once in six months, and receive a Certificate of Fitness by a certified mechanic, and heavy penalties if vehicles were run without having a current Certificate of Fitness.

Owing to the cost of the propaganda and the effort for so long, we intended that if ever our machine became universal and approved, we were going to sell it at a big profit. We recognised that our day had come; every member of the staff who could sell was taken off everything else, everywhere in the country, and instructed, after having been educated properly on the instrument, to do nothing else but go out and specialise and sell the Tapley Brake Meter. The result was very few sales in the first week; but everyone was hopeful. The second week a big jump in sales. The third week every Wholesale House in New Zealand practically who was dealing in similar lines to garages, wanted to know the price and discount they could get. We gave them the same price as we were selling at and a 20 per cent discount, and psychologically the result was amazing. The whole of the garage wholesalers, and the whole of the garage retailers were talking nothing else for a month but Tapley Brake Testers, and inside six weeks from the commencment, we had sold over 400 of these to arrive, necessitating two or three telephone communications with London, to rush the goods. We took many months to complete those orders, actually the Doric Star, arriving on the 28th April, 1937, at Auckland, carried upwards of 300 of these machines, which were dispatched before anybody went to sleep. Quite a number of cancellations had to be suffered; but they were soon taken care of in the next following two months. We made good money, and that concentrated effort undoubtedly put the finish, for a considerable number of years, to the continual financial embarrassment that had been with us through our growth for so many years.

Also it was a great boon to Margetts, who made a cool £1,000 from the sale of these instruments, and it lifted him, and us in consequence, from danger for a while, so far as his business was concerned.

I don't think any of my employees or myself ever enjoyed a campaign anything just the same as the pleasure that was given by the success of everybody connected with it, owing, or course, to the fact that it was the goods, and the instrument for the job.

As anticipated, this specialised campaign and sale of the Tapley Ferodo Brake Tester did do a tremendous lot of publicity work for Ferodo Brake Lining, which we followed up intelligently by getting into communciation with every owner of a Tapley Meter, asking them to register their meter on the card that was enclosed and in return they would get free service in perpetuity and annual tesing of the accuracy of the meter. This put us in contact with every customer, and we used that contact to make him a more interested customer still on Ferodo products.

June, 1937, saw the return of W.T. Christian once more to New Zealand, after his five years' educative period in England, the latter part of which was spent with our prinicpals, The Renold and Coventry Chain Co., Ferodo Ltd., and Blackstone Works at Stamford. He was duly inaugurated and incorporated, and quickly got down to knowing something of this business, and once that terrible trial of the first attempt at a sale was gotten over, and a failure turned into success with a little assistance, he was off, and from then on, the whole business - but Renold in particular, has been an enthralling interest and outlet for his enthusiasm. Unfortunately just before the return of Mr W.T. Christian from England, we lost the services of R.H. Wear, who joined the Blackstone Company direct, as Sales Engineer for Australasia. Evidently we trained our man too well. However, the hard establishing work was done - we were organised to sell - we had the technical services, very competent technical services too, or Mr Meyer, and he carried on in Mr Wear's place, ably assisted on the Blackstone end by now by Mr E.C. Parker, who had had a spell at the Blackstone Works as well as Mr W.T. Christian, and an excellent outside salesman in one, crude, rough but capable, Hawkins.