R.S. Clare - lubricants company celebrates 250 years

Citation

Margaroni, D. (1998), "R.S. Clare - lubricants company celebrates 250 years", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 50 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1998.01850fab.001

R.S. Clare - lubricants company celebrates 250 years

R.S. Clare ­ lubricants company celebrates 250 years

Keywords: Lubricants, R.S. Clare

In these days of take-overs, mergers, etc. for a company to survive 250 years is a considerable achievement. It is even more remarkable in the case of a lubricants company, where the attrition rate has been particularly high. Of the 500 lubricant manufacturers operating some 50 years ago in the UK, only some 65 now remain, notably, R.S.Clare and company Ltd, of Liverpool, certainly the oldest surviving lubricants company in the UK and possibly in the world. In order to appreciate more fully this remarkable achievement, the past, the present situation and the future prospects of this company are described in some detail.

Historical

Richard Clare (see Plate 1) started the business in the seaport of Liverpool in 1748 by setting up a shop in the centre of the town in Lord Street. Although starting out as a druggist and manufacturing chemist, the business soon turned to the distillation of turpentine, the raw material being imported from the colonies in America. Owing to the potential fire hazard, the business moved a mile up the river in 1770 to the new township of Harrington on the riverbank, Stanhope Street being constructed in 1795. Just after the turn of the nineteenth century, the riverfront was reclaimed to make way for more docks, since business through the port was developing rapidly. At this time, the company had been taken over by the son of the founder. The younger Clare quickly realised the potential for the further business opportunities created by the Industrial Revolution and started to sell pitch for caulking the wooden ships which were bringing much trade into the rapidly-expanding Liverpool seaport. He also began to distil coal tar which was becoming increasingly available as a by-product from the increasing number of gas works which were coming into being. With the growth in the use of machinery, Clare, along with other local companies such as the British Patent Lubricating Oil Company, started to manufacture greases based on tallow. However, in the 1880s, ownership of the business passed to two spinsters, great grand daughters of the founder. Since they had little interest in the business, spending much time abroad, decline set in.

Plate 1 Richard S. Clare, 1748

William Meadows, born in 1820, started life as a grocer, but later branched out into tar distilling with such success that he founded a company known as Meadows and Son, manufacturing chemists. The son, William Alfred, continued to develop the business, subsequently buying the business of R.S.Clare and Co. in 1889 after obtaining a loan from a friend, Colonel Thomas Wilson, a paint manufacturer. The now enlarged business is still owned by the Wilson and Meadows families.

The eldest son of William Meadows, Sydney Carter Meadows, was 18 at the time of the R.S.Clare takeover, and he later took the business forward into new fields after the turn of the century, the firm being incorporated into a limited company in 1902. With the development of the motor car and the need for improved road surfaces, demand soon outstripped supply for the R.S.Clare product known as "Tarco", and it was subsequently manufactured throughout the country under licence. In addition to road surfacing compounds, there was a rapidly increasing requirement for kerb and signpost paint. Since Clares had also manufactured paint from the early days of turpentine distillation they were well placed to take advantage of this requirement in addition to the road surface compound business. The increasing availability of mineral oils spawned a new industry, that of lubricant manufacturing, and once again, R.S.Clare was in the forefront. By the 1920s, the science of lubrication was well established, and, in order to meet the need for more sophisticated products, Clares imported Pennsylvanian base stocks from the USA. It was at this point that a chance meeting took place between Sydney Carter Meadows and a certain Charles Cheers Wakefield, who was fast building a worldwide lubricants marketing business, later known as Castrol. Wakefield persuaded Meadows to produce grease for him in large batches, rather than supply end users directly with packaged product. For the next 25 years, Clares supplied Castrol almost exclusively with grease, and allowed their own direct business to decline, which was to the later detriment of the Clare lubricants business. However, the road surfacing and marking business continued to thrive, as did the distillation of creosote and naphtha, in addition to a sizeable Paint Division. In 1933, an enterprising Clare chemist, "Doc Myles", invented the world's first truly thermoplastic traffic marking consisting of gum rosin plasticised with mineral oil, pigmented with lithopone and filled with aggregate. Demand for the new product, named "Plastaline", escalated during the Second World War when the Manila gum used in the more traditional products became hard to obtain. Glass beads were later incorporated into the product to provide a reflective surface. A British Standard was introduced in 1960 for such thermoplastics, which was, however, based on formulation rather than performance, limiting the scope for subsequent development. However, the substitution of synthetic hydrocarbon resin for gum rosin was later allowed, the higher softening point opening up the potential for use in overseas markets with tropical climates. Over 35 years ago, R.S.Clare joined forces with a London based road marking contractor, Wilson and Scott (Highways) Ltd, both companies benefiting from the merger.

Reverting to the lubricants business, both the Castrol blending plant in Liverpool and the R.S.Clare factory suffered bomb damage in May 1941, Castrol subsequently building a new factory at Ellesmere Port which incorporated a grease plant. The supply contract with R.S.Clare was therefore terminated, but the volume loss of business was more than recovered when supply agreements were subsequently negotiated with the Regent Oil Company (a division of Texaco Ltd), the Ministry of Defence, a number of large buyers in the Middle East and several independent oil blenders in the UK. This period coincided with the Chairmanship of Gordon Meadows, who joined the firm in 1927 and was the Chief Executive for 22 years from 1954 until retirement. In 1968, Texaco built their own grease plant in Ghent, again resulting in a loss of business for R.S.Clare, but again replacement speciality business was soon established with Amoco, Petrofina, and, more recently, with Castrol, Shell, Mobil, Caltex and BP. However, it was appreciated that operating solely through such companies was not ideal in that R.S.Clare had no control over demand or marketing policy. When Ian Meadows took over as Managing Director in 1979, interests were developed between R.S.Clare and the German company, Carl Bechem GmbH. This company, having had a similar history in many ways to R.S. Clare, had since developed a strong specialised market with end users in industries such as steel making, metalworking, forging, wire drawing, food and beverage, construction, aggressive chemicals, plastics and tyre manufacturing. A bond was formed between the two companies to market and manufacture a broad range of special lubricants in the UK.

The present

The lubricants divison of the company manufactures and markets a formidable range of special products in additional to the more conventional grades of lubricants. They include greases based on lithium and aluminium complex soaps, polyurea, silica, silicone, polytetrafluoroethylene and perfluoropolyether greases, in addition to a whole range of synthetic and semi-synthetic lubricants for open cast and deep mining, marine, nuclear and other aggressive chemical industries, British Gas, British Rail and British Steel, and the electrical and automotive industries.

With such a complex product portfolio of new products, a strict series of new product entry criteria ensures that undue proliferation of new products does not occur. Typically, the need for a new product is first identified by customer need, and all relevant information is carefully gathered, including both stipulated and implied customer requirements. Initial design of the product will also take into account applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, normally relating to health, safety and environmental matters. When designing the new product, factors other than product performance such as manufacturing capability, raw material quality and availability, packaging and labelling requirements, manufacturing scale-up factors, etc., are also taken into account. Where appropriate, design verification at this stage will check that the design stage output meets the design stage input requirements. Initial field trials of the new product, normally prepared in a small-scale pilot plant, are evaluated by R.S.Clare staff to ensure design validation, and any modifications are incorporated into subsequent trial batches. If successful at this stage, manufacture would normally be transferred to full-scale plant, recognising the need for possible further monitoring to ensure that scale-up factors have not affected product performance. Greases in particular are extremely sensitive to processing conditions such as cooling rates, and the characteristics of greases manufactured on a large scale do not always match those of greases made on small scale equipment. Even after launch of a successful product, review of product performance is made at specified intervals, particularly during the early stages of the launch of a new product, to ensure that any unanticipated factors have not subsequently adversely affected product performance. Design of new products has benefited from the close relationship which has been forged with Liverpool John Moores University, with R.S.Clare supplying resources such as equipment, manpower and practical technical assistance, while the university has provided library and reference resources, academic input, and the use of a number of university workshop facilities.

R.S. Clare have also been an enthusiastic supporter of the World Class Manufacturing concept, where organisations in non-competitive situations can learn from and benefit by studying the working practices (benchmarking) of recognised leaders in particular areas of activity or those of each other to the mutual benefit of all concerned.

R.S.Clare is accredited to ISO 9001 Quality Management System covering design, development, production, installation and servicing, and have also gained the Investors in People Award, to which they have been recently re-audited and re-accredited.

Involvement in appropriate organisations has always been a high priority, since high value is placed on developing market awareness by such activity, but even so, it must be unusual for three executives in any one organisation to simultaneously head up three national Trade Associations. Chris Barker was Chairman of the Road Safety Markings Association 1988-1992, Stephen Scott was Chairman of the Confederation of Specialist Subcontractors 1991-1994, and Ian Meadows was President of the British Lubricants Federation 1993-1995 (see Plate 2).

The recognition of the need to adopt new practices has always been positively addressed by R.S. Clare, and tangible evidence of this practice is evident in the form of several awards, e.g. a National Training Award and Channel 4 Television's Special Award for effective training were gained during 1990.

Plate 2 Robert Ian Shaw Meadows, OBE, Director since 1973, Managing Director since 1979

Investment in manufacturing plant has been ongoing, and the company recently commissioned a new small-pack filling line enabling small packages such as grease cartridges to be filled in-house, this work being previously contracted out.

The future

As would be expected from an organisation which has already survived 250 years in an increasingly competitive market, R.S. Clare is currently progressing a number of projects to ensure continued viability in the future.

Environmental issues are increasingly predominating in many aspects of business today. In supply chain agreements, customers who historically have requested conformance to quality standards are now investigating the environmental performance of suppliers, and there is now a general move in the manufacturing industry towards seeking accreditation to environmental quality management systems such as EN 14001. As would be expected, R.S. Clare are not only evaluating their own environmental performance with a view to gaining such accreditation, but are also taking the further logical step of developing an integrated management system which will effectively encompass health, safety, environmental and quality issues.

This aspect will be considerably helped by another development currently taking place, namely the installation of a new state-of-the-art computerised management system, which will control all aspects of company activities including order progression, stock control, manufacturing programming, raw material acquisition, invoicing and accounts, in addition to the areas already mentioned.

The Toxteth area of Liverpool in which the company operates has sometimes had a troubled history. In 1981, reports of the Toxteth riots became commonplace reading in the daily Press, and many feared for the future of the area. However, disturbances and civil unrest are not new to this area; at least eight other major riots have been recorded down the centuries owing to a combination of factors including the influx of large numbers of immigrants over the years, etc. The management of R.S. Clare have long recognised the need for continued investment in the community to ensure the future wellbeing of the area in general, and in particular for the young. As a consequence, they have made an objective to raise £150,000 in their Anniversary Year, in conjunction with Prince's Youth Business Trust Scheme, to support the building of 25 Managed Workspace Starter Units to help young entrepreneurs in Liverpool.

This initiative will provide young people between the ages of 18 and 31 in the Merseyside area with opportunities to become successful business entrepreneurs, by providing financial assistance or professional advice. Particular attention is being given to those who are disadvantaged, whether for social, economic or physical reasons. Already, the initiative has achieved a great deal and a number of remarkable success stories prove the soundness of the concept. Also, the company is working closely with community groups and local schools, foe example marking out playgrounds to the design of the pupils, presenting Pupil of the Month Awards, etc., and programmes are in place to engage all their "stakeholders", i.e., customers, employeees, suppliers, communities and shareholders in such activities.

It is typical of the current Managing Director of R.S. Clare, Ian Meadows, that he has provided a great deal of support in many ways for such ventures, and it was in largely in recognition of his close involvement with the community and his activity in helping the economic regeneration of Toxteth that he was appointed an OBE in 1993.

The company has in the past demonstrated a willingness to enter into mutually-beneficial mergers and partnerships, and this trend will no doubt continue. The company very recently acquired a further business, that of Bimark, a privately owned, independent company which was involved in the provision of surface maintenance systems and solutions to the construction and maritime industries in the UK and Europe. It specialises in the development of bituminous and resin based surfacings, anti-skid waterproofing systems, industrial flooring, resin coatings, concrete repairs and protection.

The story of R.S. Clare is an object lesson in the art of business survival. During the 250 years of its existence, the company has seen many changes, and has responded and adapted rapidly to meet the demands of the particular period.

In the early days, the former founders were quick to identify business opportunities in a world that was developing rapidly in terms of industrial activity. Painful lessons were learned when the company inadvisedly placed much of its business in the hands of others; the company also suffered as a result of economic depression and, at times, the lack of interested and effective leadership. However, the company recovered on more than one occasion from situations which might have been considered terminal by others, and is currently in a strong position to respond to the challenges of the future.

Although the current trend in lubricants manufacture is towards the use of larger and larger blending plants in the interests of unit cost minimisation, small volume niche products do not fit into this general scheme and there will always be opportunities for the specialist manufacturers. In a market which is now relatively mature, R.S. Clare have continued to expand the extent of their operations in recent years by acquisition and by entering into suitable business partnership agreements. They enjoy a considerable volume of overseas business, which, due to the specialised nature of the products involved, has not suffered as a result of the recent strength in sterling, unlike commodity items.

In recognition of their 250th anniversary, R.S. Clare have adopted a new logo and the strapline "People ­ Partnership ­ Progress", which epitomises the attitude of a company more concerned with looking ahead rather than merely celebrating longevity.

D.J.Margaroni