Newark company Blagg & Johnson celebrates 100th anniversary

Having spent 49 years with the company, production manager Dave Shaw is one of Blagg & Johnson's longest serving employees and talked proudly about it's history.

He said "The company, which started out making drainpipes and gutters was co-founded by Emily Blagg and Frank Milhill Johnson."

Dave said Emily was an entrepreneur and buissinesswoman at a time when it was unusual for women to be in positions of power and who, among other things, owned a brickworks in Newark, built the town's first cinema and was responsible for the construction of the Palace Theatre.

She also owned and build a lot of property, including The Park off London Road and Lime Grove, where on one end of the street there are larger houses for the owners and managers of local businesses and the terraced houses were for the workers.

"We've always employed locally throughout our history and a lot of people end up staying for a long time." said Dave.

As much as the event was about celebrating the firm's history over the last century, Joshua Reid who along with his sister Mwana co-owns the company, was also keen to talk about the future.

"We want to start producing our own goods, not just supply parts to other companies," he said.

"We also want to start apprenticeship schemes which will be a good thing for the area and to show that manufacturing is amazing and provide that continuity to a new generation."

The company coped well with the pandemic due to a full order book, closing down for a while before slowly reopening.

"A day like this is amazing, phenomenal. It's great to do today and celebrate our employees who, like our customers, have been so loyal," said Joshua.

"My grandfather, Douglas Evans, had the business in the Sixties and Seventies, and it's fantastic because someone like David Shaw knew my grandfather, knew my mother and obviously now knows me, so to me it's like a family."

Conrad Gray is the company chairman after being with Blagg & Johnson for 32 years in which time he worked as a salesman, sales director and then managing director.

"It's a long established firm in the town and I think it's important to everybody that's worked there past and present to show that we intend to carry on and be there for another 100 years.

"I've worked for three generations of the family that own it now and one of their first priorities has always been looking after the employees."

"It's a great place to work, 30 odd years I've been there and enjoyed every minute of it. I used to say I knew every employee, I knew their wives and kids names, it's just a family firm"

"I hope we continue to expand, I always say from little acorns, giant oak trees grow."

Finance director Maria Baldwin, who has been with the company for 29 year said: "A celebration like this reflects the dedication and loyalty of our employees. Half of the people here are the old crew and half of them the new crew.

"The company has survived 100 years through thick and thin, through recessions, through the pandemic. It's just an incredible milestone that a lot of other companies can't say they've reached.

"It's privilege to work for them. This was my first job out of school and I feel very lucky for the opportunity."

Employees from past and present were eager to talk about the workplace where they'd spent so much of their working lives.

John Flint, who travelled from Sweden to be at the

event worked as a quality engineer for 13 years, saying: "The company was very good and I always got along with management" "They were professional, friendly and always supportive."

His words were echoed by Jim Scott, a welder of 32 years with the company, who said: "They looked after us, lots of good people worked there, you could talk to anyone, I had a lot of good times."

John Keeley spent 17 years as a fabricator at the company, he said: "If you were ill, they'd look after you. It's a good company with a good name and a good relationship with the town" "You get to see people you've not seen in years"

Ian Allsop currently works for the company and had nothing but praise for his colleagues, saying: "You get some very good friendships, sometimes it's more like brothers. It's great to see all of these guys, especially the old guys again.

"When I joined I was the youngest one there, everyone around me had 20, 30 years experience. It was great to learn from the old guys and it wouldn't be the same without them."