Darfen hits 100 years of putting up the fences

Darfen was founded as the Darlington Fence Company, near the River Thames in London in 1912, with workers manufacturing chain link fences by hand using supplies from Darlington Wire Mills.

Managing director Clive Wragg, who joined the company in May 2011, said: “Darfen has seen many changes over the years and I’m sure the company’s founders in 1912 couldn’t possibly have imagined that a century later we’d be installing fences that can alert the police themselves if breached or fences made from recycled shopping bags.”

Although many of the changes in technology have come in recent years, Darfen had to begin changing with the times right from the outset.

Shortly after the company began trading came the First World War, bringing Darfen into a new era, with many of its machines operated by women after much of the workforce was called up to fight. The Second World War brought further change, as Darfen began manufacturing chain-link mesh for British Army beds.

Among its high-profile contracts over the years was manufacturing the pylon-post fencing which ran alongside the M62 following its construction in the 1970s.

By 1973, the company had opened two new branches, in Norwich and Sleaford, and a Scottish branch followed in 1986. Darfen then took over Baldwin Durafencing in the early 1990s, taking on its three manufacturing branches in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.

Although its roots were in London, Darfen’s manufacturing has been based in Doncaster since 1926, and a purpose-built factory opened there in the early 2000s. It now has seven offices across the UK and last year achieved a turnover of £16m. Although Darfen does not trade internationally, it has been part of the worldwide CRH plc since 1998, which itself has a turnover of 18bn euros.

Since 1912, technology has moved on dramatically and managing director Clive Wragg said the company has stayed on the cutting edge.

Among the projects Darfen has worked on in recent years was a security fence for Waitrose made entirely from recycled plastic. “It’s not something we do an awful lot of,” said Mr Wragg. “It was an idea Waitrose had that we worked with them on to re-use what they see as nuisance waste.

“They have quite a lot of recycled plastic anyway and on top of that we looked at a new system for them where we could include a useful and novel way of disposing of old shopping bags.”

Mr Wragg believes that providing what people want, whether individuals or companies, is key to Darfen’s success. “The key to it all is to understand clients’ needs,” he said.

“That’s something we do very, very well. We have a lot of returning clients as well, which is always a good sign.”

As well as returning clients, developments in other industries and areas of society mean there are always new customers looking for help with security. “It’s an industry that’s moving with the times. If you think of things like solar farms that are going up all over the south of England, they all need security,” said Mr Wragg.

“There’s a lot of our clients who are having to protect things they would not have protected previously because of the rise in metal thefts.”

Darfen counts high-profile businesses including B&Q, Tesco, Boots and Asda among its clients, as well as having worked on projects for the Royal family and high-profile sports stars. Naturally, it prides itself on its discretion, and treats its less famous clients just as well as the celebrities.

Treating people well is something which has contributed to Darfen’s success – not least in terms of its own employees.

After joining the company, Mr Wragg introduced a scheme to reward the contribution made by the staff. “We decided as a company we should recognise long service,” he said. “We found quite a lot of people who had been here a long time when we looked – some of them well over 25 years.”

The home of Dick Whittington

Darfen has been based at Carr Hill in Doncaster since the early 2000s, in a purpose-built centre.

It also has offices in St Albans, Birmingham, Liverpool, Airdrie, Peterlee and Portsmouth, with a total of 170 employees.

During its 100-year history, the company has spread its operations across the UK, but one of its most interesting bases was in London.

In the early 1930s, Darfen relocated to a building on the site of the former home of Dick Whittington at 20 College Hill.

It was given the name Dick Whittington House and was described in a staff bulletin at the time as “a building fit for pride”.