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When
the firm began life in 1889 it had a rather less glamorous role.The
founders were John James Platt, a textile engineer from Delph
and John Hill, a Prudential manager from the Oldham office.
They took premises at Beehive Mill, Lamb Street, off Medlock
Street and began by processing cotton flock for furniture makers,
exploiting the demand for horsehair suites which were then all
the rage in Victorian drawing rooms. They used cleaning, garnetting,
carding, cross laying and mill puff equipment with cotton waste
from the cotton mills. Cotton felt was later manufactured for
the bedding, furniture and wadded quilt trade.
To
describe Platt and Hill as a family firm would be misleading.
It is a two-family firm and its members are still 'Oldhamers',
unlike so many mill owners who made their money and then moved
away to live in Wales or the Home Counties. John James Platt
worked for another textile firm, J & T Wilde, before setting
up in business with John Hill from Leicestershire. For the first
70 years of its life the firm operated from the now-demolished
Beehive Mill at Mumps. John Platt's grandson, Clarence, joined
the firm in 1923 when it employed less than twenty people and
was ticking along rather than making a lot of money.
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One
of the Platt & Hill fleet from the 1940s
...thank making a lot
of money. He 'did a bit of everything' , learning the trade as
he went along. In those days groups of men would come along looking
for casual work. They would work for a few hours until they had
enough money for a pint or two and would be paid up by lunchtime.
By the time Clarence's son, Philip took over there was a permanent
work force in the region of over two hundred. John Hill's great
grandsons, David and Anthony were Philip Platt's co- directors.
The two families tended to operate in different areas of the business,
the Platts on the production side and the Hills on sales. Philip
Platt and Anthony and David Hill rotated the job of company chairman,
a novel arrangement but one which suited all parties and promoted
good relations.
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Many
well known high street retailers display Dunlopillo brand pillows
manufactured by Platt & Hill Ltd. A key factor in the firm's commercial
success has been the development and use of top quality foam and
fibre fillings, specially treated to prevent fire-spread. This
is important in household furnishings where poisonous fumes are
often the main cause of fire deaths.
When the government
introduced new safety standards in March 1989, Platt and Hill
were well ahead of most of the competition in this respect, in
some cases teaching other firms how to do things. This left the
UK industry and Platt and Hill in particular in a strong position
to push into Europe in the early nineties.
In
the period since the second war many coarse-spinning firms have
disappeared, not having the ability and resources to adapt in
an ever-changing market. Platt and Hill's survival owes a lot
to its move into specialist fillings. They not only survived but
expanded from the Mumps site to the Wellington Mills at Greenfield,
then, in 1976, to a large factory at Belgrave Mills. The company
purchased a second factory on the Belgrave Mills site in 1994
, carrying out an extensive renovation and modernization programme
on the old cotton mill. The four year rolling schedule of work
will not be completed until well into 1998.
Currently
the company supplies industries in upholstery, bedding, apparel
and leisure furniture. Their main customers are G Plan,
Marks & Spencer, Argos and the John Lewis
Partnership. It uses petrochemical based products, synthetic
fibres and foam. Natural products used are feathers and cotton.
Their ISO 9002 registration attests to their quality. They are
often more expensive than their competitors but are awarded business
because of their consistent quality standards. Over 100 years
ago, it was a member of the Platt family who went off to register
the company, hence the name Platt & Hill Ltd. The Hills have always
maintained that the company should have been registered with the
names in alphabetical order (i.e. Hill & Platt). A fifth generation
of Hills and Platts are now involved in the business. In middle
management positions; John Platt, Nicholas Hill and Andrew Hill,
all in their mid twenties will soon be in a position to guide
the company beyond the millennium, into a second hundred years
of trading.
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