40 years of VBH (GB)

Gary Gleeson, marketing manager of hardware company VBH, reflects on the people and products that have featured down the years, as the company celebrate its ‘official’ 40th birthday.

VBH (GB) turns 40 this July. VBH had been supplying these islands from Germany since 1978, but Peter Kinze, one of the company’s top men, quickly saw the potential of the UK market, and persuaded the board that a local company was needed to capitalise fully on the riches that this fledgling market could bring.

Peter recruited two experienced industry professionals, Graham Organ and Barry Amey, and Heinz Wagner (GB) opened in Rochester on 7 July 1982. The business was a subsidiary of VBH group company Heinz Wagner GmbH.

The first product lines were mainly European, and most of the brands have been consigned to history in the UK. Who can remember BSW non-adjustable door hinges for example?

None of the original staff is still here 40 years on, but a few current members of our team joined very early in the company’s history.

Both Robb Crampton, our commercial manager, and I joined in 1984 in the warehouse and worked our way through various departments en route to where we are now. Robb’s stint is unbroken having initially joined on a YTS (anyone remember them?), but I interrupted my service when I undertook a five-year ‘sabbatical’ before returning in 1993.

Lesley Mills and Lee Pollard joined in 1985 as receptionist and warehouseman respectively. Lesley is now a vital member of our customer service team, while Lee, a finalist in the G-Awards Unsung Hero category in 2019, is still a stalwart of the Gillingham warehouse team.

Allan Price, general manager for Scotland and Northern Ireland, is a relatively new boy, with just the 33 years’ service under his belt.

We have a superb staff retention rate, but people do move on. Most of our current and ex staff members’ names feature on a wall at VBH House, a daily reminder of our old friends and colleagues.

Wagner expanded into Scotland in 1990 and acquired Swansea-based LG Fasteners during 1996 to give us national coverage across Great Britain.

2009 was a big year. Firstly, the company name changed to VBH (GB) to bring us in line with the rest of the VBH world. We were one of only three group companies that did not carry the VBH name.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the VBH Group launched its own hardware brand. That brand is greenteQ.

By this time, VBH (GB) was in the hands of Peter Rowlands, who has a vast amount of contacts and manufacturing knowledge built up over a long and distinguished industry career. Peter quickly set up greenteQ design teams in both the UK and the Far East. The two teams work together to develop products for VBH (GB) and for the group as a whole.

Early examples of products developed specifically for the British market include the Alpha window handle and Sigma door hinge, both members of the greenteQ Suite of matching window, resi-door and patio door furniture. Until 2009, our furniture range came from many manufacturers, each with different shades of the same colour, so greenteQ gave us the ability to develop our own matching suite directly, and what a success it has proven to be.

We have introduced countless new greenteQ products over the past 13 years and have seemed to have found a niche as a supplier of bi-folding door hardware in particular. Our greenteQ Clearspan hardware is extremely popular with manufacturers of all sizes.

VBH has continued to flourish since Simon Monks became MD in 2018. We put the quiet times of lockdown to good use by readying new products for the market. Our Q-Smart electronic door handle, Orion 3 star cylinder, Invicta shootbolt and Securitas security window lock are just four examples of products that have been developed and launched over the last year or two

We celebrated our birthday with a dinner/dance at Leeds Castle in May. Most of us managed to make the trip for what was a wonderful evening and we are looking forward to the next milestone.

VBH has been blessed to have had some amazingly clever and kind people work here down the years. On behalf of the current team, I would like to thank everyone who has been a part of the VBH adventure so far.

VBH (GB) Ltd
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