Open Writing

It had always seemed an ideal development of business if one could create a co-ownership with the employees as the shareholders - rather like John Lewis. Our legal advisers took ten years to bring this concept to fruition because it was unusual.

Claudius Ash Becomes Part of Our Business

Then the largest UK dental manufacturer/supplier, Amalgamated Dental Co., sold out to its American friends, Dentsply. It became evident that their chain of retail dealers, Claudius Ash, was not doing well.

So in a mad moment we put in a bid and found ourselves with an enormous increase in staff, premises and turnover - plus 18-hour days. The bid was a very confidential matter, with the first meeting with the Amalgamated Dental Managing Director informally in the Hampstead Heath Jack Straw’s Castle Pub followed by a stroll together over the Heath.

My first letters to Amalgamated Dental (ADCo) were typed by me at home so that no one knew what was brewing until it happened. One of my visits to the ADCo headquarters in London’s West End, Broadwick Street, saw me thinking of my father, and I felt his presence with me encouraging me to go ahead with this major growth. With the financial backing of Hill Samuel, we went ahead and made this big purchase.

The Claudius Ash team was excited by the change of ownership, and everyone gave it wonderful support. The £3,000,000 accumulated losses of Claudius Ash were transferred back to Dentsply, so we started off clean, although the enormous borrowings of J & S Davis to finance the purchase of Claudius Ash remained a real liability.

It was quite a shock to find oneself with a company with ten branches, 200 staff and a £7,000,000 turnover. The one thing I was resolved to eliminate with the annual loss by the company of several hundred thousand pounds.

I left Ron Crowdy to run J & S Davis and virtually moved across to Claudius Ash, travelling round the country (by train of course) to visit all the branches and wind them up. In my usual way travelling was always by sleeper train when possible so that none of the 24 hours were wasted.

These trips took a lot of time, and occasionally my secretary, Pat Evans, would join me for a day or two so that in the evening I could catch up on correspondence and administration. Dictating machines, mobile phones and the modern style of computer had not yet really arrived. The company had a computer that filled a large room and would today be regarded as a museum piece.

I decided to keep the three non-dental leaders of Claudius Ash, although in retrospect that was probably not a wise decision. The only real sufferer during this period was the family since my time with them was so limited.

We managed to turn the Claudius Ash dealer chain from loss to profit. By 1984/85 their profit reached £250,000, which was very exciting. On the way we had bought two small dental dealers in Bristol, C & C and Glasgow, Alex Bell. The Ash annual conference at that time was so exciting with managers and sales team greatly stimulated by the company recovery, efficiency and potential.

However we were borrowing far too much and with interest being paid at 20% during the early 80’s we decided to go in for a business expansion method of raising new capital. From friends, family, managers, customers and suppliers we raised £250,00. This was good, but not as good as we had hoped. By this time we had moved Claudius Ash headquarters from Barnet to excellent new rented premises in Potters Bar.

During this period profitability from the J & S Davis arm had slipped. Thus it became necessary to sell their freehold premises in Finchley and move them into shared accommodation with Claudius Ash in Potters Bar.

Our bankers were becoming restless, and so we brought in a finance house which required two non-executive seats on our board. This was yet another operation that proved to be unwise. By 1989 the new non-executive directors decided that a 67-year-old Managing Director was not appropriate, and so I was converted into a non-executive Chairman. Not a happy conversion for me. To handle a change from a very hands-on team leader into one who only appeared at the far too frequent board meetings was not easy.

The board then decided that it was necessary to dispose of the whole business for virtually nothing to the important Claudius Ash Finnish equipment supplier, Planmeca. They took the immediate steps of getting rid of the company chief executive and appointing Hugh Grist, the Ash equipment manager, in his place. Huge had worked closely with Planmeca since Ash took on the distribution of Planmeca equipment, so there was friendship and mutual respect that linked them.

At age 69 retirement arrived, leaving Daniel running the Davis half of the enterprise. The new team succeeded in turning the company round into a successful and profitable business. They did things that I should have done.

It was surprising and rewarding to receive three different Life Achievement Awards from different dental organisations and to be the only non-dentist in Europe to be elected to the International College of Dentists. ‘Thank You’ is still a lovely phrase.