LG Harris & Co

L. G. Harris & Co Ltd is a British manufacturer of paint brushes and decorating products founded in a workshop in Birmingham in 1928. It is the largest manufacturer of decorating paint brushes and painting products in the UK.

It was founded in 1928 as the Midland Trading Company.[1] The current company was incorporated in 1930, according to Open Corporates, incorporation date</ref> and renamed LG Harris in 1932. The business moved to Stoke Prior, near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire in 1936.[1] The family-run firm was acquired by Norwegian consumer products group Orkla Group in May 2016.[2]

Their brushes are primarily for the building trade and DIY markets. It is the largest brush manufacturer in the UK.

After completion of new buildings on Hanbury Road in 1959, and new warehousing in 1974 the company was operating from a 220,000 sq ft works, and in the 1980s owned over 2000 acres of woodland within a 20-mile radius as a source of the hardwood for the handles of its brushes.[3] The company expanded abroad investing in a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise in China.

The founder, Leslie George Harris, ran his business on Quaker principles, and was a major sponsor of arts and music during the 1960s.[4][5]

Recognition

In 1961, the company was awarded the Royal Warrant by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for supply of its pig-bristle brushes and decorating tools to the Royal Sandringham Estate.[1][6]

The company won the West Midlands Export Business of the Year in 2015.[7]

Local woodlands

LG Harris owned a number of plantations such as Little Goosehill Wood in Worcestershire[8] which it intended to use to produce handles, but sold these off in the 1980s.

Notes
  1. About us, official website
  2. Birmingham Post May 2016 Historic paintbrush firm LG Harris acquired in £55m deal - Family-run Worcestershire group which was founded in the 1920s has been bought by Norwegian consumer products giant Orkla
  3. Forestry and British Timber 1980 - Volume 9 - Page 37 L.G. Harris & Co Ltd operate from a 220000 sq ft works at Stoke Prior in the heart of Worcestershire and own over 2000 acres of woodland within a 20-mile radius —— the source of the hardwood for the handles of its high quality brushes.
  4. The Connoisseur - Volume 163, Issues 655-658 1966- Page 41 Here and There THE Seventh Annual Arts Festival, organised by that enterprising brush manufacturer, Mr. L. G. Harris, at Stoke Prior, Worcestershire, promises to be of extraordinary interest and variety of subject.
  5. Management Today Alan Barclay.UK: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE FRIENDS. - Quality, service, and concern for the individual - these values guided a minor sect to great commercial heights in the early part of the century and still provide an example for industry today.
  6. They are also noted as possessing an IBM LC 1901 in 1969 in the British Commercial Computer Digest: Pergamon Computer Data Series By R. H. Williams, Pergamon Press 1969
  7. Harris brushes come out top in West Midlands awards, Bromsgrove Advertiser, 6 October 2015
  8. Woodland centre gets permission to stay...for now Worcester News, 15 December 2011

References
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