History...

A Brief History of Smith Bros (Quinton) Ltd - Natural Deco

Smith Bros. (Quinton) Ltd was established in 1927, the proof of this establishment being defined by Cliff Smith (one of the founder brothers) when a sign emblazoned with the Smith Bros. (Quinton) Ltd scroll was erected by Ran Smith, above their first workshop at 570 Hagley Road West, Quinton, Birmingham.

At that time, which was during the recession of the late twenties, Stan, Ran and Cliff Smith, were like so many other people at the time - looking for work, and decided to try and go it alone.

Starting with the manufacture of timber incubation units for chickens, known as "Foster Mothers". They also made sheds, greenhouses, garages, porches, verandas and generally anything constructed in wood that people in their vicinity required.

They managed to make a go of this, and being as they needed to purchase nails, screws, paint, glass, putty, etc., they decided to sell such items from 570 Hagley Road West and hence the Smith Bros. (Quinton) Ltd Ironmongers was opened.

The enterprise continued much the same growing bit by bit until the outbreak of the Second World War, by which time Eric Smith had joined the company. Ken Smith was to join them just after the war making five of the six Smith brothers involved within the business.

During the war the brothers were at the age where if they were involved in war work (a reserve occupation) they were allowed to continue such an occupation. During the war years manufacture of timber buildings was superseded by the manufacture of ammunition boxes (EI Mark III's), thousands of these were produced by Smith Bros. at Quinton for the war effort.

After the war luckily all brothers survived and Smith Bros. (Quinton) Ltd reverted back to manufacture of timber buildings, however the great problem was obtaining sufficient timber (as it was on license) to continue in business. To this end they managed to purchase a quantity of what were described as Canadian timber invasion barges from the Ministry of Defence. These were moored on the Thames at Hammersmith and proved to be extremely difficult to dismantle for the purpose of obtaining timber. The first one that was tackled took many days to disassemble by a gang of men. However, with perseverance they managed to develop a technique whereby a fair quantity of usable timber was transported back to Quinton in Birmingham.

In the early fifties, Cliff Smith was approached by a friend of his who worked at the Austin Motor Company and asked if he and his brother would be interested in quoting for cases for what was to become, through time, Rover Group. It was decided to tender for this work and fortunately they were successful.  At a similar time the company moved a few miles outside of Quinton to Oldbury and set up a factory employing a number of the local residents in their carpentry business.

And thus from small beginnings Smith Bros was established, a family business employing local people.

Through the years Smith Bros has been involved in a number of projects, always looking to keep a band of loyal workers gainfully employed and has gained respect throughout for both a friendly and quality service.

As time has moved on the group has became BS EN ISO 9002 accredited by BSI which more recently has been superseded by the companies ISO 9001:2000 accreditation.  Furthermore the company has been accepted into the Guild of Master Craftsmen in recognition of the many years of high quality service that Smith Bros has provided its customers.

In 2004 the company made the step of moving from its premises in Oldbury to a more modern facility in Tipton.  Now involving the third generation of the original Smith family, Smith Bros, has proven itself to be a successful forward looking company dedicated to its customers and its many long serving employees.