New owners ready to put a fresh gloss on long-standing paint firm

WHEN Hicks & Weatherburn first opened for business, Handel was writing the Messiah and the War of Jenkins' Ear was rumbling on in the Caribbean.

The small Yorkshire firm, which started selling paint and varnish in 1741, has survived countless slumps and conflicts to become one of the oldest companies in Britain.

A new chapter is being written by its latest owner, Jonathan Wain, who hopes to double the company's turnover in the next five years by finding new customers and producing environmentally friendly paint.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Wain is trying to find out more about the Leeds-based company's earliest years. It was founded in an era when the slave trade was booming, poaching was a capital offence, and Britain was engaged in a war with Spain after Captain Robert Jenkins had his ear cut off by the Spanish during a colonial dispute in the Caribbean.

Methodist preachers had also started to tour Britain's towns and villages.

Mr Wain said: "The company has a good reputation for high quality products and is very customer friendly.

"The history is a bit hazy when you go beyond the late 19th century. In the late 19th century it was known as Late Miers & Co and it changed its name to Hicks & Weatherburn at the turn of the 20th century."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Wain, an industrial chemist, had been seeking acquisition opportunities after returning to Yorkshire following a spell in the US. He added: "I worked in technical management, marketing and product management, most recently with the Lubrizol Corporation's coating additives business unit in Cleveland, Ohio.

"I returned to Leeds about five years ago. I decided to look around for a company to buy as the chemical industry jobs market is extremely competitive and the longer you're out of it, the harder it gets. I was trawling around the internet and contacting lots of people – and this business came up which was just three miles down the road."

The Beverley family, who had owned Hicks & Weatherburn for about 60 years, wanted to sell the company to an entrepreneur who believed it could grow.

Mr Wain recalled: "Albert Beverley bought the company after the Second World War from the Hicks & Weatherburn family, and I bought the company from his grandson Graham Beverley."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The company, which has three staff and a turnover of 250,000, is a paint maker and "decorative supplier", in other words, it provides accessories used by painters and decorators.

Mr Wain added: "From what I have gathered from the Beverley brothers, their grandfather bought the business and it passed down to their father and uncle and then to the two sons Graham and Roy Beverley. They have both worked there since they were teenagers.

"The business was based at the Lawnswood Works, Otley Road, in Leeds for the last 40 years and I know they had a shop in Vicar Lane (in Leeds) in the early days."

The Lawnswood site is being sold and Mr Wain is moving the company to the Penraevon Industrial Estate on Meanwood Road in Leeds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Although Graham Beverley is retiring, Roy Beverley is staying on with Mr Wain to oversee the company's expansion.

Mr Wain added: "It's been hard work but great fun and the Beverleys have been extremely cooperative and open. Around 90 per cent of sales are to the trade but I'd like to expand the retail side of things in the near future. There's a lot of room to grow the business – it isn't that well known outside of West Yorkshire."

He's keen to use his understanding of chemistry to produce paint that doesn't harm the environment and increase sales to about 500,000 a year.

He added: "We want to develop the specialised side of the business. There's a lot of pressure on paint manufacturers to make more environmentally friendly paints because they are tightening up the legislation.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"In five years, I would like to double the turnover by selling wallpaper and paints to a wider market and promoting the Hicks & Weatherburn name."

The story so far

Hicks & Weatherburn, which dates from 1741, is believed to be one of the oldest paint manufacturers in the world.

Little is known about the company's founders, although their fortunes would probably have been boosted by the city's rapid expansion.

Leeds in the 18th century was dominated by the textile trade, and the town's merchants had links with traders across Europe through the Humber ports. Research suggests that by the 1770s, Leeds had become responsible for about one third of the country's woollen exports.

Related topics: