# Forgotten Birmingham (Part 1) John Heath & Co. Ltd, November 2011



## Sheepdisease (Nov 11, 2011)

John Heath established his stationery business in 1852, delivering office products around the Birmingham area and later into other parts of the country.

According to a trade press article in The British & Colonial Printer and Stationer, 1892,

" John Heath was the originator of a plan of displaying the miscellanea of the stationery trade that has contributed more than any other that we know to the fostering of small sales, with consequent profits. Gradually other houses adopted the same method of showing their wares."

In February of 1993 John Heath acquired Neville and Gladstone, another national wholesaler of office products. Neville and Gladstone had themselves previously acquired Pilot Stationers, Brady and Hunt and Beaumonts Furniture. N & G also introduced their own Punchline brand subsequently adopted by John Heath.

Kingfield Heath was formed in October 1999 by the acquisition of John Heath and Co, the oldest office products wholesaler in the UK, by Kingfield Wholesale Office Supplies.

Between 2000 and 2002 the company set about an ambitious integration of the two companies. The transition included relocation to a new purpose built headquarters in Sheffield and the investment of £20 million in a new 11,000,000 cu ft. Distribution Centre at the heart of the UK motorway network at Magna Park in Leicestershire.

During this time the branch network was cut from 17 sites to the 9 that are in operation today, with a reduction in staffing from 1,500 to less than 1,000 employees.


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## st33ly (Nov 11, 2011)

Great report . Ive walked past this place a few times and wondered about ways in lol.


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## Andymacg (Nov 11, 2011)

cheers for that matey

havent seen the inside of here since 1997, worked there for 6 months after i came out the armed forces


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## highcannons (Nov 11, 2011)

Nice, love the lampshades. Funny how they have survived when the idiots have smashed loads else. Maybe they were dwarves. Or Elves....


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## Sheepdisease (Nov 12, 2011)

Andymacg said:


> cheers for that matey
> 
> havent seen the inside of here since 1997, worked there for 6 months after i came out the armed forces



Quite cool that you worked here, shame how things change... At least this place was structurally sound, unlike the other building we ventured into in the second thread...


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## Silent Hill (Nov 13, 2011)

Great shot.... 






Nicely done mate


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