Remember the man who liked Remington razors so much that he bought the company? A similar scenario springs to mind with T&G Woodware. Set up in 1975 to distribute a small range of Portuguese woodware products, it bought 90% of its main supplier’s factory 14 years later and has grown to become one of the largest homeware companies of its type in the world.

T&G’s UK operation is based at Portishead, Bristol and it still has a manufacturing centre – the Tornearte factory at Pernes in central Portugal.

The factory, which now uses about 1,000m3 of maritime pine a year, was founded in 1971 to manufacture the traditional items for which Portugal has become famous.

Tornearte understood the importance of producing high quality products for the export market – the reason behind it joining forces with T&G Woodware in 1975 as its UK distributor.

However, T&G’s skill in marketing and product development soon put pressure on Tornearte’s production capacity, leading to the decision to sell a large slice of the operation.

Since the T&G acquisition there has been considerable investment in new machinery, production methods and more efficient handling of materials during the manufacturing process.

On-site computerised kiln dryers remove 88-92% of the moisture from the wood before it is cut down to a more convenient size on a bandsaw. Many products are then made on lathes, but for more complicated components CNC routers are used – the most advanced machinery in the facility.

Quality control

Some of the machines in the factory were designed and made in-house to maintain exacting quality control standards. One example is the drilling machine which has led to productivity gains as it drills six holes simultaneously whereas previously each hole was drilled separately with a single hand jig.

Much of the sanding is done by hand and most products are sprayed with varnish in modern facilities which have the flexibility to finish the large variety of shapes before being shipped to the UK for despatch around the world.

Four years after T&G was established as a distributor of woodware it began designing its own products. Innovative packaging and care instructions made them a popular choice with consumers.

In 1989 it added pepper mills to its range and quickly won the second largest share of a high volume homeware market. It was in that same year that T&G bought into the Tornearte factory for £422,000 and things really began to take off.

Manufacturing partnerships were set up with other factories – it has about 50 factories working for it from the Czech Republic and Poland to the Far East – and more products were refined and developed.

T&G marketing manager Jeff Riley said the majority of the company’s sales are still based around wood – ranging from salt and pepper mills, bread bins and spice racks to cutting boards and utensils.

He explains: ‘T&G was at the forefront of creating the whole housewares market. Prior to the mid-70s that market didn’t really exist, but the company drove it forward for the next 10 years to create housewares demand, particularly in woodware.’

The result is dramatic.The new 2001 range features, for instance, around 50 different chopping boards, only three of which are not made from wood.

Mr Riley said: ‘We have a huge product range of something like 1,000 different products that are mainly wood – pine, hevea or beech. As well as the standard range we do a handcarved Heritage range plus a new range in breakwater pine which is faded, organic and rustic to look at with traditional rope handles.’

Another new species this year is palm wood which is being used for bowls, pestle and mortar and chop sticks, while Shaker boxes are being manufactured from cherry wood. There is also a big range of cork products, and T&G has become the UK’s biggest seller of beech trolleys – a fast growing market.

Market leader

Mr Riley said: ‘We also have 80 different types of utensils – a lot in beech and others in olivewood and pine. Our share of the woodware market is something like 25% in the UK which is three times bigger than our nearest rival, and we export across the world.

‘T&G was one of the first companies to put information labels on its woodware products about care, protection and hygiene and that helped establish its reputation.’

Many of T&G’s products are Forest Stewardship Council certified and its range of wooden utensils is probably Europe’s widest.

However, it has hit a stumbling block with some of the wood it uses. Mr Riley said: ‘For instance, hevea, which is a very popular wood, would never be judged by FSC to be a certifiable wood with the current rules as there are just too many different plantation owners. We would love it if one day FSC would recognise the merits of the way hevea is produced, but I don’t think that will ever be the case.

‘Most of the beech we use is European but the hevea is more of a mix, with most coming from the Far East.’

According to Mr Riley, the life cycle of products is becoming ever shorter. ‘These days, after a couple of years, people want new products so it is a continuous redevelopment to keep them fresh.’

He said it is a case of tweaking existing designs and the company now has its own in-house design team and a new product manager who is constantly looking for new ideas. It also outsources to design specialists to ensure it stays abreast of latest trends. ‘We try and lead the market which we have always driven,’ said Mr Riley.

T&G sells several million products every year and each is inspected pre-and post-manufacture to ensure quality is maintained.

‘We tend to talk product in the factories and timber to the timber people. We specify what quality of timber we are looking for to the suppliers. They may be directly related to the factories concerned but sometimes we go through an intermediary. We are very experienced internationally at specifying, sourcing and buying products.’

Mr Riley acknowledges that there has been a huge exodus from UK production to overseas because it is closer to raw materials and labour costs are cheaper. Spoons in commercial quantities have probably not been made in Britain for more than 100 years.

He said: ‘A lot of the time we try and make it a one stop shop – from the wood specialist to the mechanism specialist – and we try and work within the confines of one factory output. There are internationally recognised benchmark systems which ensure the quality is right and we keep monitoring the factories to ensure they stay that way.’

Everything the company sells comes through Portishead. ‘Our customers can be anything from a small specialist cook shop to a huge multi-national,’ said Mr Riley. ‘The throughput through Portishead is enormous and everything is checked and finished. Some customers want items delivered as boxed presentation sets, and that is done here.’

World markets

‘The UK is our biggest single market, plus we have significant coverage across western European countries and in America and Canada as well.’

Exports run at around 13% of turnover and business continues to grow, making Mr Riley confident for the future.

‘We have a productive environment, a market leading product and we can satisfy a constantly changing demand.

‘We started with a small range and worked out and the business grew on the reputation of the product. No-one could afford to start an operation like this today.’