60 Years of Taylor Maxwell!
This year Taylor Maxwell celebrates its 60th anniversary, so we've taken a look back through the company's history to bring you 60 facts from the last 60 years...
1. Taylor Maxwell & Co. Ltd was founded by Mr E. Maxwell and Mr. R. Taylor in 1959 and commenced operations merchanting bricks and timber from offices in Bristol.
2. Taylor Maxwell’s first office was based in Bristol, where our Head Office has been based ever since.
3. Today the Taylor Maxwell Head Office is based in Clifton in a Grade II listed building, spread across 4 floors, with 16 offices and 50 employees.
4. The second Taylor Maxwell office was opened in Liverpool in 1964.
5. The first Taylor Maxwell manager's meeting was held at the Royal Hotel in Bristol on the 14 March 1969.
6. Although still remaining within the Taylor Maxwell Group, in 1977 the brick and timber operations were separated and Taylor Maxwell Timber Ltd was formed.
7. Today we operate from 14 regional locations across the UK supplying a range of brick, cladding, timber, masonry and offsite solutions.
8. Our most northerly office is in Stirling, Scotland.
9. Growth over the last 60 years has been achieved both organically and by acquisition, securing companies including the Timber Marketing Corporation in 1978 and Vobster Cast Stone Company in 2002 (now trading as Vobster Architectural).
10. In 2015 Taylor Maxwell were placed at number 137 in the 12th annual Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top track 250.
11. In 2017 we were placed at number 37 in the 19th annual Sunday Times Profit Track 100.
12. In 2018 the Taylor Maxwell Group achieved a turnover of £200m.
13. Sadly, our founding Director Mr Eric Maxwell died in 2018 at the age of 93. Following his retirement in the late 1980’s, Mr Maxwell retained a very keen interest in the company, always attending the Annual General Meeting and challenging his successors with regular phone calls and searching questions!
14. Taylor Maxwell currently have 192 employees based across the UK.
15. Our longest serving employee is our Timber Managing Director, Tony Hammond, who celebrates his 40th year with Taylor Maxwell in September 2019!
16. 31 (16%) of our employees have been with Taylor Maxwell for over 30 years.
17. 34 (17%) of our employees have been with Taylor Maxwell for over 20 years.
18. 55 (28%) of our employees have been with Taylor Maxwell for over 10 years.
19. We have a wealth of skill and experience within our company, our youngest employee is 18 and our eldest employees are 65!
20. The current combined length of service of all Taylor Maxwell employees is 1602 years!
21. Our national team of 78 product specialists cover the entirety of the UK and Northern Ireland and offer a wealth of local market knowledge and expert advice, enabling us to build strong professional relationships and help our clients realise their ambitions.
22. We currently have 114 employees working behind the scenes in customer services, sales support or internal admin roles.
23. We currently have 5 apprentices working with us across five apartments in our Bristol Head Office, covering roles in HR, Marketing, Accounts, IT and Invoicing.
24. If you’re looking for a change in career, we currently have vacancies across the UK in both our facades and timber divisions. View the available roles on our website here.
25. Our latest Group brochure, combining our architectural Timber and Facades products, was launched earlier this year. Click here to download your copy.
26. The Group brochure is our most extensive product brochure to date with 132 pages and includes technical brick illustrations, detailed wall build-up drawings, product colours and finishes, project case studies and a host of striking imagery.
27. Taylor Maxwell are proud to work with a number of professional partners as a group, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London Festival of Architecture (LFA), Timber Trade Journal (TTJ), Timber Trade Federation (TTF), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
28. We have proudly sponsored ‘RIBA Regional Project Architect of the Year’ for the last three years, celebrating the best architecture in the UK.
29. Taylor Maxwell have sponsored the London Festival of Architecture for 2 years, running 6 different events across 22 days, attracting over 400 attendees.
30. We currently have over 30 architectural products in our group portfolio, including facing brick, cladding, timber, masonry and offsite solutions.
31. We have 18 bricks in our Select Range that are produced exclusively for us by industry leading manufacturers. Click here to view the range.
32. Our cladding division was established in 2013 and we now have 12 cladding products in our portfolio including Corium, Anvil, Strata, Stonepanel and Ceramapanel.
33. Our portfolio of architectural timber products include flooring, decking and engineered wood such as Glulam and CLT.
34. Our Composite Decking from Composite Prime is made using recycled plastic. For every square metre of the decking created, the equivalent of 280 milk bottles or 3,000 plastic caps are recycled. This equates to 9,250,000 bottles recycled in just six months!
35. Did you know that we hold stock of a wide range of timber products including construction timber, decking, flooring and fencing. Products are available for nationwide delivery in mixed, full and part loads from our stock-holding facilities or direct from our supply partners.
36. The largest Corium scheme we have supplied to date is Chelmsford Central, City Park West. Across the two phases of the development we will have supplied 20,000m2 of the mechanically fixed brick cladding.
37. We have delivered over 70 CPD seminars this year across the UK, with the most requested being our Corium brick cladding presentation. Click here to view our CPD portfolio and book yours.
38. We love to be social! We are currently active on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
39. We have over 3200 followers on our LinkedIn profile, who we keep up to date with the latest case studies, products and news – are you following us?
40. In the last year we have posted 368 times on LinkedIn.
41. We have over 1,100 followers and 100 posts on Instagram.
42. On average as a company we send 3000 emails a day! That’s 90,000 a month and an astounding 1,080,000 a year!
43. Over the last 6 years we have sent out 220 monthly e-newsletters to our customers, join our mailing list here.
44. We’ve changed a lot online in the last 20 years, take a look at how our website has looked during this time...
45. The Taylor Maxwell Group website was launched in May this year and has had over 42,000 visitors to date!
46. We have over 1,100 images of our products and projects on our website, with new images added every week.
47. There are 34 case studies on our website to which we have supplied a range of our products and services. Take a look at our latest ones here.
48. Our flagship showroom opened in 2018 and is located in the Hop Exchange, London.
49. Since it’s opening, the London Bridge showroom has had over a thousand visitors come through its doors!
50. With over 350 different brick types on display, the London Bridge showroom offers a unique facility to view examples from all the major manufacturers in the UK and Europe.
51. Alongside the brick samples, other products on display at London Bridge include natural stone, composite decking, cast stone, engineered wood flooring, brick cladding, terracotta cladding, metal and mesh aluminium systems, stone cladding and precast concrete solutions. The showroom offers an unrivaled opportunity for architects and their clients to meet with our experienced team and create and develop your project design ideas.
52. We have two more dedicated showrooms opening this year, stay in touch to be the first to find out where.
53. Our 60th anniversary celebration was held earlier this month at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon.
54. The celebration was attended by over 250 current employees and their partners, as well as former directors of the business.
55. The black and gold themed black tie event saw appearances from The Cheatles, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, as well as singing waiters and magicians, making it a fantastic night for all!
Meanwhile in 1959...
56. The average house price in 1959 was £2,077 and on average a new car would set you back £780!
57. The average grocery shop in 1959 cost £0.93, approximately thirteen times less than it does today at £12.50!
58. Celebrities born in 1959 celebrating their 60th birthdays this year include Simon Cowell, Magic Johnson, Michael Kors, Emma Thompson, Sean Bean, John McEnroe, Hugh Laurie, Bryan Adams and Barbie.
59. Films released in 1959 include Some Like It Hot, Sleeping Beauty and Ben Hur.
60. Songs released in 1959 include Living Doll (Cliff Richard), High Hopes (Frank Sinatra), A Fool Such As I (Elvis) and As I Love You (Shirley Bassey).