Company History

Meakin Building Supplies is a family owned business which has been trading as a builder's merchant for nearly 20 years.

In the beginning
The business began life in 1960 as a haulage firm based in Tadley, Hampshire (Meakin Transport) and evolved into two separate businesses. The haulage firm was originally started and owned by the current owner's father, Mr. Phillip James Meakin, (born 1925) who returned from working in America, and decided to start up on his own. His wife sold her washing machine for £65 that she had just bought two weeks previously for £80, with this, £250 borrowed from the bank and some savings, they bought a business. This included an 'A' licence and their first vehicle, an Austin 2.5 ton van from Wilf Gobson who ran a coach business in Ramsdell, near Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Move to Headley
In 1965 the family and business moved to Headley, near Newbury, Berkshire where the business purchased a second vehicle. Phillip had four sons, three of who all followed in their father's footsteps, taking to the road for the firm. The youngest, Derek Meakin was born in 1968.

Going Dutch
In 1969 they moved to the village of Spencers Wood near Reading, Berkshire, as there was no longer enough room for the business at Headley. "Blanke Villa" was purchased for £9,000 from a Dutchman (Barry van den Outellar) who returned home after his father had died, leaving him a bus business in Holland. The yard at "Blanke Villa" was being used for car repairs, and had council permission for this, the transition to Haulage use was therefore east to obtain.

There reached a stage when it was decided to make the company a partnership, so the sons all became equal partners in the company. The brothers were Joe (Mr. C.J. Meakin, the eldest), Brian and David. The company was always running to keep up with itself, but managed to build at one stage to a fleet of about 20 vehicles, although they were never all running at the same time.

Acquisitions
In about 1979 the partners decided to buy Judds yard, situated just 300 yards from "Blanke Villa", the owner, Barry Judd had gone bankrupt, was looking for a buyer, and offered it to Phillip Meakin. It was an ideal opportunity to gain some much needed space, with it's own garage, as "Blanke Villa" was becoming very crowded.

From Small Beginnings
In 1980 the Building Supplies started, originally selling just sand and cement, progressing to bricks and blocks within the year. Clifford J. Meakin (Joe) drove the first vehicle owned by the Building Supplies (a Ford 'D' Series), he loaded customers and unloaded suppliers deliveries, while his brother Brian worked in the office, and saw to Joe's jobs while he was delivering.

Their first employee was Graham Paul, a local lad who started straight from school, he was well known by the whole family, and still works with the business. The Building Supplies was a great success, but it soon became obvious that there would not be enough space for both businesses to exist at "Blanke Villa". As the number of vehicles for the Transport business had declined, the partners decided to move it entirely to Judds Yard, where it is still based. At that time it was also decided to split the partnership, Phillip James Meakin and his wife Dot retired to Newquay in Cornwall, leaving David Meakin as Sole Proprietor of the Transport business while Brian and Joe Meakin became partners in the Building Supplies.

The Final Split
In 1986 Brian and Joe decided to go their own ways, and so, Joe bought out Brian from the business, leaving Mr Clifford J. Meakin as the Sole Proprietor. It was also at this time that my father (Joe) asked if I (Ivan Meakin) would work for him, to deal with the paperwork as this had been originally dealt with by Brian's wife Lesley Meakin. I agreed to join under the condition that the company invested in a PC, and after much mumbling he agreed. I spent my first three years from school as a computer programmer, and had gained an O.N.C in computers. I wrote a simple program which allowed the account customers statements to be produced within two days as opposed to the typewriter method which was taking up to two weeks (including typing errors) each month.

Out of the Dark Ages
The next major advance was in 1989, when the company went also completely computerised. Gone were the days of producing invoices with pen and paper, and gone was the need to manually produce account statements. The invoice run was printed every week as opposed to being hand priced (often erroneously) and posted each month. Statements were now produced automatically each month, and were easy to understand and read. Although Joe was wary at first, he was printing cash sales tickets within 15 minutes of his first encounter with a computer. The first system was secondhand, hand three terminals and one printer and cost a staggering £15,000! The system was supplied by Allgeirer Ltd., a German company that had just opened a branch in the UK.

In 1990 Alan Meakin, Joe's youngest son, left school and started work for the Building Supplies.

The Maidenhead Connection
As business at Spencer's Wood increased, space, once again, became a problem, the sheer volume of deliveries, incoming and outgoing, was pushing the yard to its limits. To enable the business to grow any further, it became clear that another yard was necessary.

Joe had been "keeping an eye open" for another side for a couple of years. Two such ideal sites came up in this time, but the business was out-bid in both cares. Eventually, through a revelation, it was revealed that a site might be in the pipeline. Deliveries in the general Maidenhead direction were increasing all the time, so a second site in that area would be desirable.

In 1997 the business took over the lease of a yard in Maidenhead which had seen three previous occupiers, Tudor Building Supplies and Eniths and Graham Building Merchant. Although this branch had only been open for a short time, trade is increasing at a rapid rate. The biggest drawback at this branch is that there are operating restrictions which are fiercely monitored by some local residents.

Limited of Sole Trader
It was eventually decided for various reasons that we needed to become a Limited company, the major reason being that we were no longer a small busness, so on the 1st Match 1999 Meakin Supplies Ltd. began trading, and the old company ceased.

BasingStoke
In December 1999 we bought an existing Sand and Paving merchant based in Oakley, Basingstoke, originally owned as a family firm and run by Malcolm Stone and his son Danny. This proved to be a very busy site in spite of the fact that it is based in an old disused Railway Station, alingside the track itself. Although quite a small yard, it has proved to become very popular with Trade and DIY customers alike.

Guildford
The site was originally Weyside Building Supplies, again owned by Paul Bird and run by himself and his family. Guildford opened as Meakin Building Supplies Ltd. in July 2002. Located in an industrial area just outside the town of Guildford, this site has great potential as there are several towns surrounding it that the Reading branch was delivering to more regularly each year, so now we are able to serve this area locally, and Reading can once again focus on it's own local deliveries.

Present Day
Most of our employee's are mostly made up of either family or friends that have been "aquired" through the years. The Reading branch is going strong, and has recently demolished the original storage shed and replaced it with a new one in a different position nearly doubling the storage capacity and giving more space to the yard, in addition the office has been refurbished and extended to add a new shopfloor.

Space is still however at a premium, but the yard layout is often changing, so we will eventually resolve this. The company has a turnover in excess of £7million in 2001, which increases almost every year!