Ernest Griffith & Sons Ltd is a Manchester-based business, established in 1941 when it was registered as industrial textile merchants.
The business has always been a family concern. When it was formed in 1941, two Griffith brothers – Ernest and Harold, and Ernest’s son; Ernest Taylor Griffith, were the shareholders and directors. Their salesman, Lennard Brearley worked closely with the family supplying industrial textiles to customers who, in those times, were mainly manufacturers of fabric goods.
In 1958, using Lancashire cotton twill, Ernest Griffith & Sons Ltd started manufacturing cotton dust sheets in Manchester, supplying small independent decorating centres throughout the UK.
In 1978, Lennard Brearley took over the company from the Griffith family, and was joined by his son Paul in 1980 who owns and runs the business today.
Of course, things have changed dramatically since then. The late 1980s saw the decline of the textile industry in the UK, which led the Brearley family to seek new suppliers abroad where both the fabric and the end product were manufactured competitively in terms of quality and price.
And the small independent decorating centres have mostly merged together or been taken over by the large DIY superstores; the same thing has happened with the builders and plumbing supplies merchants.
Today, Ernest Griffith & Sons Ltd import and wholesale huge quantities of cotton dust sheets to most of those large, well-known chains and the company continues the family tradition of providing quality products at competitive prices, combined with excellent service.