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The Editor Meets...
Bean & Morrell
The Extraordinary Founders of Sash UK
By Brian Elliott
 We all know that special teachers can have a considerable influence on their pupils’ future but Albert Booth could never have dreamed what lay ahead for two keen young Cudworth lads in his woodwork classes. Nor could they. Ron Bean and Terry Morrell started working together about a year and a half after leaving secondary modern school. The 40th anniversary of their business partnership was celebrated in some style in 2005. The company that they had founded all those years ago had become one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of PVCu products to trade and commerce. What’s more, Sash’s conservatory division was now a global leader in the design, engineering and construction of spectacular glass structures or luminatriums, enhancing classy restaurants, shopping malls, private and public buildings. Not surprisingly their innovative designs, using cutting edge technology, have generated many awards, perhaps the most meaningful ones from the glass trade itself. But if I was to select a single, long term reason why this Grimethorpe-based company has done so well it would be because of its high standard of quality and service which Ron and Terry started back in the sixties.
The founders’ enthusiasm for their products and the company remain as strong as ever, even though their role is more advisory and consultative these days.
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 I arrived at Sash UK’s huge Park Springs site a little early so I took some time to walk round part of the small lake and nature reserve, a lovely setting for the modern building. It was a cold day but I was given a warm welcome in the modern reception area where I met Joint Managing Director, David Ruzicka. David joined Sash in the mid-1980s, after the miners’ strike, working as a sales representative, joining the Board in 1993 and still travels overseas. He told me that Sash had done well in recent years in the USA, particularly with their innovatory luminatrium (literally meaning light and courtyard) product, designing and installing glass-supported structures of varying sizes, but most notably for substantial and important buildings, one extending to 6,000 square feet and worth $1.8 million. Diversification has also been extremely important during difficult market conditions. Sash’s investment into decking and fencing under its Fitrite products now benefitting both the company and its customers. Items such as smoking shelters and products targeted at the developing outdoor leisure market are also being produced. David clearly has great enthusiasm for both the company and its achievements, stressing how important it was for Sash UK, from its board of directors to its shop floor operatives, to build on their success by always being at the forefront of design. This includes investment in the latest technology and getting into products at the right time, for example the Vertical Slider window and the changing New Build market. Their continuing innovations should certainly result in more manufacturers abandoning their own fabricating and using the services of Sash. Also apparent was David’s immense respect for the co-founders of the company, Ron and Terry. Before long I was invited up to the Boardroom and introduced to the two pioneers. They were down to earth Barnsley lads, responding really well to my questions concerning the early days of Bean & Morrell.
Let’s go back again to Cudworth, woodwork and how it all began. Timber-orientated Terry found Mr Booth to be a great inspiration, so much so that he attended extra-curricular classes at lunchtime and after school; and even unofficially as an underaged night school student. They were mates and dead keen on becoming joiners. Nothing wrong with that but for Terry a job was hard to come by, having to make do as a Granville-like delivery boy at the Co-op, biking groceries to local households. Ron managed to get an apprenticeship with Stothards but it wasn’t long before the two pals found themselves working together for a local builder, Percy Fieldhouse, and gaining just the kind of practical experience they needed. Then there was a useful spell with Northern Ideal Homes, providing sub-contracting site work and further knowledge.
By their early twenties Bean & Morrell were self-employed, working from Terry’s back garden garage in Brierley where they made traditional wooden windows. Customers were pleased and orders kept coming in, facilitated via a seven-day working week, estimates carried out in the evenings and weekends. The partners just took nominal wages irrespective of earnings, any surplus being invested in the company and the two budding entrepreneurs (though still very much hands on) began to employ other joiners. New premises were needed.
A redundant church at the edge of Grimethorpe was converted and used by the company, enlarged and extended over the years.
Many locals will remember them there. A new name was required. B & M were now making aluminium as well as softwood and hardwood windows; and continuing to carry out a lot of building work. In 1982 Cath, employed by B & M, came up with Specialised Aluminium Softwood and Hardwood (Products Limited) or SASH, a brilliant modern acronym which also paid respect to the traditional window.
Business increased when the partners began to concentrate on the new PVCu window. In those days the retail market was also important, with showrooms in Rotherham, Barnsley, Castleford and Huddersfield but the ‘hands-on’ background of Bean & Morrell steered their developing company into the trade and commercial sector. Despite several phases of expansion Sash needed bigger premises in order to keep up with demand and also to increase it.
A factory was taken on at Langthwaite Grange, though its development was far from easy because of planning hindrances. Sash had added PVCu conservatories to their product range, opening up new markets at home and abroad.
Sash got the go ahead for the present purpose-built building sited at the edge of Grimethorpe in 1997. It was a big decision but had the backing of the Barnsley MBC and provided the company with one of the most modern manufacturing facilities of its kind in Europe. Another new Luminatrium factory, used for the manufacture of large conservatories and portals for markets such as America and Australia, now functions a short distance away, on Springfield Road. Prince Andrew and the Lord-Lieutenant of South Yorkshire were in attendance for the opening of Sash’s new factory unit and 40th anniversary celebration, a tremendous but well deserved accolade.
It is interesting to see some of the company literature relating to Sash UK’s products via New York, Sydney and Grimethorpe, so the old mining village is given a well deserved world-wide prominence. Surprised if not shocked, one person set up an internet blog in veneration of the link. Goodness knows what would have happened if the product had been perfume.
Before leaving, I was given a short tour of the factory courtesy of Terry Morrell. It was interesting seeing all the different products and state of the art technology, all housed in a building big enough to contain several football pitches. Women and men work on the shop floor. There are a good number of workers who have been with Sash many years, usually a good sign of a successful employer. Sash’s current workforce consists of about 220 people, about 20 of them at the Luminatrium site but many more are used during the sub-contracting process when installing products at home and world-wide.
Despite Sash’s growing international reputation, links with the local community of Grimethorpe and the Barnsley area itself remain strong. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, a family day based on a medieval theme worked very well and there are established educational and work experience projects.
Land near Sash’s headquarters has been acquired, so there is room for even further expansion.
Ron and Terry remain as enthusiastic as ever: ‘Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine the business would become so large. We are up there in the world market, especially for portals. A lot of other manufacturers look up to us. We may not be a household name in retail but in trade and commercial we are one of the top companies in the UK and Number 1 for portals. What an achievement, to think that we are installing one of our designs in Pittsburg, for $1.8 million, the biggest ever built by a UK company.’ And David looks to the future with an eye on the past: ‘We run Sash on the same lines as its founders’, said David, ‘providing quality and good service at sensible prices, and that is our aim for the future.’
Before leaving I had a final look around the reception and showroom area and couldn’t help thinking about Joseph Paxton and his work at Chatsworth, the great innovator of conservatory design. Looking down from his crystal palace in the sky he is no doubt impressed by the 21st century designs and achievements of Sash UK. Bean & Morrell’s Grimethorpe really does deserve to be right up there, alongside New York and Sydney. Watch out Dubai!
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