Open Writing

Selling remained my most important and enjoyable activity. Sometimes it was possible to link trips to both suppliers and customers in one journey.

One summer day after a morning in the office I set off on one such trip. It was to start with an afternoon flight to Milan, with train to Genoa where Dr. Sandri lived and worked. After spending the morning with my then secretary, Mrs. Phil Boston, who lived locally and had been with us a long while, she wished me a happy journey and told me how she envied me the wonderful overseas trips.

From Milan airport I made my way to the station for the train to Genoa and then found out that it was an Italian holiday, with trains packed solid with families returning home. A first class rail ticket only enabled me to obtain standing room in a first class corridor, with a small boy and his dad squashed up against my two bags and me.

It was a hot, sweaty evening, and the small boy needed regular liquid intake. What was not easy was to reach the toilet. So the next thing I noticed was that he was passing water down my trouser leg. The effect on me was to cause me to burst out laughing, remembering Phil Boston’s envious comments.

Genova (please excuse my use of the Italian version of the City) provided me with a comfortable little hotel that I reached after midnight. Then two days with Bruno, when we planned product improvements and new items. This was always a vital part of our excellent relationship. He was wonderful at designing and making new products, but needed an experienced dental marketing man to look ahead and advise him what to make. Thus we were a great team.

Bruno was followed by a visit to our customer, who at that time had the sole agency for our products for the whole of Italy. He was a Greek by birth, and we were to travel to all the main Italian cities to visit our dental dealer customers and potential customers.

There followed two enjoyable travelling weeks in his car as we covered every worthwhile city from Milan to Naples. It was a successful selling trip. My poor Italian plus my better Spanish and French, with a leavening of English, enabled us to cope adequately. The two of us also used the same mixture together.

We did not book ahead and always managed a central, sensibly-priced hotel. A couple of times we had to share a room. On one night a wire was stretched across the central square at a height of about 60 feet, and there was a wonderful display of walking, cycling and acrobatics along the wire. It was a free display, although the hat collectors moved around with success.

Other Dental Activities

Election to the council of the Trade association was followed with two stints as President with some new direction. I had also been largely instrumental in the formation of the British Dental Health Foundation with the close involvement of a trade colleague, Peter de Trey. This charity still builds awareness by the public of the need for mouth care.

Then came the creation of a very special dental charity, The Cordent, Trust, that was financed by the company and led by a committee of wonderful dental professionals, with me as Hon Secretary for the first 28 years.

Cordent initiated many original and worthwhile dental projects and was of particular help in bringing dental care to undeveloped countries. With over 200 projects initiated and financed, it is difficult to select those that may be considered special.

My favourites are the introduction of the Pankey philosophy of quality dental care to UK and the use of dental technology skills for the production of the interface connections to enable the very severely handicapped to be able to operate many different switches. Even one person who could only move his navel was able to operate many switches.

However, more than 200 plus others who have been enabled to do many things that would otherwise have been impossible could each claim that their project was very special. Since everyone gave their services free, no other charity was able to operate with such miniscule expenses. Currently these are between £36 and £50 per annum.

A particularly interesting project that never took place was the consideration of introducing a large corporate dentistry scheme on the lines of the Swedish scheme. The BDA came out so strongly against the concept that we decided not to go ahead. Today there are so many corporate dental practice schemes that are for profit that it is perhaps a pity that we did not go ahead with a major charity.

I remained actively involved in Trade Association affairs and continued to serve on its Council. At the same time I was travelling the country visiting dental dealers and calling on dentists. Thus I was in a unique position as both a dental salesman and a senior member of the trade. Confidential information came my way, and it was easy to feel the changes that were happening.

One of these was the sight of the major dental companies growing larger and more dominating. So, discussing this with Cyril Rosen of Nesor (who alongside Peter De Trey was one of the two most intelligent members of the trade), we decided to attempt to form a joint company of the smaller independent trade companies. Fifteen companies came together and met in a London club. After a while it became evident that not all the individuals fitted together and the project was abandoned.

However seeds had been sown, and Pat McPherson of F H Wright of Dundee picked up the concept and bought up four of the dealers who had been involved in our discussions. Two more joined together, and two more eventually went out of business. We had the right idea but not the skill and experience to pull it off.

During one of my periods as president of the BDTA (1969) I was able to organise the first British Dental Joint Venture Operation at an overseas dental exhibition and obtain Board of Trade financial support for it. Paris was the venue.

The second oldest British dental company - the Dental Manufacturing Company (DMC), with headquarters in London’s Portland Street, factories in Barnet and Blackpool and a number of retail branches round the country, was a quoted public company with control and management in the hands of the Hawtin brothers.

The Hawtins had become involved in the dental industry during the war when the realisation that plastic teeth were going to take the market from porcelain teeth caused them to develop a range of plastic teeth. They then bought the Dental Manufacturing Company to become part of the dental industry.

Frank Hawtin was not content to be the second largest British dental company, and he tried to buy the largest, Amalgamated Dental Company (ADCo). They failed, but Frank Hawtin was unwilling to fail, and so in 1968 he sold his company to ADCo.

This, of course, meant the closure of many of the DMC branches where these were in the same cities as the ADCo Claudius Ash branches. It also meant the end of the DMC Barnet factory. Not many were aware that the Barnet League football club came into being as the DMC football club and later converted itself into the Barnet Club that gradually changed from amateur to professional.

With the dental takeover scene so lively, I had discussions with a family-owned dental business, where there was mutual interest for us to take them over. Here again, the deal did not happen.

Another dental trade change came in 1974 when the old established London and Norwich dealers of L. Porro Ltd became part of a small public company, Howmedica, which also owned Dental Fillings, a small family manufacturer of filling materials. They did not last too long and eventually quietly disappeared.

My brother Victor, a Chartered Accountant, had joined us previously when he had come to a convenient gap in his career. He brought administrative skills that were very much needed in the business. However, he was pressing for us to computerise when I did not think we were ready for it.

Thus when his brother-in-law suggested that he had an opportunity for him, we lost Victor. This was sad, but we did not allow it to cause a family rift, and I bought his shares in the business.