Arthur Price of England
Arthur Price of England is one of the country's leading cutlers and silversmiths with two Royal Warrants and a reputation for quality which has spread around the world.
The company, which is today run in partnership by brothers Simon, the managing director, and Nigel, the marketing director, knows the dept they owe to their great-grandfather and company founder Arthur Price and a garden hut in the back streets of Birmingham.
For it was from those humble beginnings that the shoots started to sprout in the 1890s before Arthur Price and Company was registered on October 3, 1902, but Simon and Nigel can trace the company roots back even further to the 1870s and their great-father was described as a "toy maker".
"We know that in those days, a toy maker made silver trinkets-all different kinds of silverware such as decoration for pipes, scent boxes, rattles and buckles for belts and shoes." Says Nigel.
"His son Arthur became more and more involved in manufacturing spoons and forks-knives used to be made in Sheffield-and finally decided to make the step into registering Arthur Price as a company."
Nigel stressed what a big step that would have been for Arthur Price but from that distant day, in the early days of the 19th Century, the Aston company prospered on the back of the growth of the British Empire.
"Manufacturing was at the heart of the British Empire" says Nigel. "In those days almost everything was made in Britain and then taken overseas. The demand was such for British quality cutlery that there was something like 3,000 cutlery manufacturers in the country then.
The family prospered and moved to Moseley but Nigel says Arthur Price never lost touch with his roots.
The company founder had four children-two sons and two daughter-but eldest son, Arthur Jnr, died of cancer and it was youngest son, Fred, to take over the reins between the first and Second World Wars.
With ever-increasing reputation for quality Arthur Price and Company was still making the renowned Atlas products for the home market and exporting across the British Empire, but even those hectic days of non-stop manufacturing had their lighter moments as Nigel explained.
"When they did and audit of the company they came across two employees they did not know existed. They investigated further and found that Fred had put his two horses on the payroll and they were being paid a salary. I don't think you could get away with that today"
Fred has a son and daughter and it was John - Simon and Nigel's father - and now at the age of 73, company chairman who took over the running of Arthur Price in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The company went through a number of changes during the early days of John's control.
Up to 1964 the company traded under the name of Arthur Price and Company but in that year Arthur Price of England was used for the first time, but, the influence of the Empire was diminishing and manufacturing was dealt a succession of blows by the changes in world trade patterns.
Mor and more goods made overseas were bought into the country and, despite its reputation for quality and durability, British manufacturing felt the squeeze.
"The three-day week and the recession were almost catastrophic" recalled Nigel. "Cutlers and silversmiths across the country just disappeared and the face of British manufacturing changed within the space of a few years. Manufacturing in Birmingham and Sheffield just went under"
Arthur Price had to restructure to survive and, in the 1990s, became seen on the high street with concessions in major retailers.
"We knew we had to spread the marketplace and that, in conjunction with the quality of the products we had to offer, meant we were able to continue." Adds Nigel.
Copyright Arthur Price 2002