A 'Personnel' Account
John Leatherland

John Leatherland's picture of the business world in the immediate post-war years is a powerful reminder of how tough things could be and the unsophisticated nature of some of the technology and manufacturing processes of those times. What also comes over in his memories, however, is the paternalism of the family who had founded the business and the richness of company-sponsored leisure activities which brought people together and which were destined soon to die a death with the coming of television. John is now in his 90s and we are indebted to him for this account of a world that has disappeared.

I was born in Birmingham in February 1907, the youngest of four brothers. At first I did personnel work for Cadbury Bros. and later, Tube Investments but about 1947 decided that I needed a change. My attention was drawn to a vacancy for a personnel manager in a company called Halex Ltd. in East London. I was interviewed by Adair Couborough, the works manager and a grandson of the firm's founder, and later taken to see Frank Merriam, head of British Xylonite of which Halex was a part and whose headquarters were also on the Hale End site. His father, CP Merriam, had been a friend of Seebohm Rowntree, the Quaker: with my Cadbury background I knew something of the Rowntrees and that, I think, helped me to get the job.

At that time Halex made a wide range of household goods. Things were extremely busy working to supply products like combs, hairbrushes and toothbrushes which had been in short supply during the recent war. There were night shifts for nearly every product. However, after a hectic year demand began to fall and, fr 2000 people or so employed at Hale End, we had to dismiss 800 people over twelve months. Traditionally, most of the day work had been done by women with men on the night shift, so it was mainly men who lost their jobs on the basis of last in, first out. The hourly-paid workers earned about £3 a week which, plus bonus and piecework, could go up to £5. This compared quite favourably with a Birmingham toolmaker who would have earned about £4 a week at that time.

Although celluloid under our trade name Xylonite was still the main material used, polystyrene was becoming increasingly popular because it could be injection-moulded and did not require machining and polishing. Natural bristle used for filling brushware was on its way out and being replaced by nylon: what had been a large bristle department had been reduced to about 20 people when I arrived. An interesting development which started around 1948 was the moulding of polyethylene washing-up bowls. Initially the material for this was stripped from power cables and granulated in our own works. The moulds were prewar compression tools for thermoset bowls converted to injection moulds, so the bowls were of very thick section and the line hardly profitable. They were advertised as 'almost indestructible - you could run a double-decker bus over them'. But there were numerous complaints about the newfangled bowls. Early examples were sometimes badly made and started to break up. People wrote to say that their bowl had melted when put on the stove - that in spite of a warning leaflet that accompanied each item.

A paternalistic regime
The company was still governed by members of the family. They had very much the paternalistic outlook of the Quakers and, in 1936, had bought land near the factory on which were constructed sports pitches and tennis courts. I wanted to encourage the social side beyond mere weekly dances and started an annual horticultural and handicraft show, clubs for darts and badminton, etc. There was intense rivalry between the Xylonite factory at Brantham, Suffolk and Hale End which came to a head in friendly, healthy competition at the annual sports day. One of the things I had to control was the large spending on these events: senior management at both sites rivalled each other in putting on a good show.

Each factory had a Welfare Fund as well as a Sickness & Provident Fund which paid out in the event of illness. At Hale End we had a full-time nurse and a doctor who came in on two mornings a week. His job was to examine medically new applicants for employment and advise on any health hazards that might arise from our manufacturing processes. Absence through sickness by men in 1947 was around 2.5%; for women it was 3.5% and for part-timers 56%, all these figures being quite low. When 1 left to do other work for the company, the figure had risen by at least 1% in all categories.

The factories at Hale End and Brantham had canteens from the earliest days. They superseded the old mess-rooms required under the Factories Act. Employees could heat up their own food or purchase a full meal at a reasonable price which covered the cost of materials and cooking. In the 1940s a two-course meal in the canteen cost 1s3d [6p]: menus included the traditional roast, shepherd's pie and the like - nothing fancy. There was a canteen committee to deal with complaints which were never serious, e.g. cold tea or coffee served from a trolley during breaks, or portions that were too small (or too large).

In 1961, I was appointed group personnel officer. Our labour force then comprised 6500 people located at the two main factories at Hale End and Brantham; four Cascelloid factories at Leicester, Stamford, Plenmeller and Coalville; Expanded Rubber & Plastics at Croydon; and Transatlantic Plastics on the Isle of Wight. Each had its own personnel officer, and my job was to help, advise and generally ensure that all followed the board's personnel policies. I also had overall responsibility for pensions and staff salaries. Happily we were left very much to 'do our own thing' by the owners, by then Distillers Co.

A dramatic change
In 1963 a dramatic change occurred. Union Carbide Corporation now became the owners and what up to then had been essentially a family-run business was pitchforked into a much different world. Their management style was what might be called American chemical', i.e. a large volume of product made by relatively few people. They did not really understand our policies although they did care about things that affected their profits. We can, with hindsight, now see why they disposed of so many businesses. Hale End, for example, was labour-intensive. At one time it had been profitable but profits were tailing off and below the return on investment demanded by the new owners. Because there were so many small, discrete units they were not all that difficult to get rid of. The more attractive businesses such as tabletennis balls went first (but manufacture continued on the Hale End site for some years under new ownership with the same people employed). On the other hand, some could not be found a buyer and there had to be redundancies

The intention to close the Hale End site was a well-kept secret and when this finally happened it came as a nasty shock to the people there. We had to work out redundancy terms and these were calculated on a rather complex formula which was not unfair. Some thought, and still think, that the system was wrong but it did at least prevent a lot of grumbling and argument. Notice of redundancy was carried out like a military manoeuvre, with senior staff being told first and the information then being cascaded down the chain of command. There was some bitterness among employees. Traditionally a job with "the Xylonite" meant a job for life and long-service staff felt that the company had let them down. Unfortunately, there was not much anyone could do once the decision had been made. Most people, however, found other work after a few months. Others, such as those working on Mothercare products, carried on as before. But at the end there were about 1200 redundancies. The land was of course a valuable asset and it was intended that it should be sold as an industrial park.

I am afraid that I look back on these events as inevitable because of the lack of profitability in the businesses. In those days it was much less easy for people to understand such arguments than it is today, with massive unemployment over most of Europe. Brantham and the Bakelite operations at Tyseley and elsewhere were also sold by Bakelite Xylonite, as the successor company was called, and even the parent, mighty Union Carbide itself has hardly survived. It is sad to reflect on these things and, arguably, it might not have happened if the management of the time had been less wedded to traditional business methods of running their companies. As easy attitude had grown up. People who made mistakes were not made sufficiently liable for their errors. But nothing can take away the record of the pioneering work of the old British Xylonite Company and its contribution to the making of a great industry.

An article Hale End: home of Xylonite by Anthony B Merriam in plastiquarian no. 24, Summer 2000, gave a ery full account of the history of British Xylonite with emphasis on the Halex operation and the commercial background.