Page 18 - BHTA 100 years

Mr H Guy Drew, who had served as Chairman and then President for 24 years stepped down due to ill-health and Mr G T Gamble of Allen and Hanbury’s Ltd took over as President, with Mr S J Everett of S & R J Everett & Co becoming Chairman of Council.
The minutes of a meeting on April 1st 1953 for the Manufacturing Retailers Section contain just one line about a subject that would become a serious threat to the industry over the next couple of decades.
The Secretary submitted a catalogue which had been issued by a rm of surgical instrument makers from Pakistan. It is likely that this would have been the rst time that the majority of the trade would have seen evidence of what would become a major competitor to the UK manufacturers, as Pakistan developed the production of surgical instruments over the years. In fact, only a few years later in 1959, a member commented that certain product lines had already been ‘wiped out’ by the competition from Pakistan.
In early 1953, the Association members were embroiled in a dispute with the AEU Trade Union. Mr Gamble, Chairman of the Manufacturing, Retailers, Steel and Silver Sections of SIMA read a letter from the Divisional Organiser of the AEU following the Association’s ‘complete rejection’ of a wage claim stating that in a few days’ time a strike would take place. The Union was claiming 6d an hour but an offer of 1d an hour was made to the Union. A series of meetings took place in the following days before an agreement was reached of 2d an hour and the threat of a strike was averted. It wasn’t the end of discussions with the Unions though, details of which appear in the minutes of meetings well into 1955 and it is clear that, through this period, a great deal of the focus during Association meetings was on wages and bene ts.
In March 1954, members were very concerned with the level of discounting in the marketplace and there was much discussion about the desirability of some form of ‘retail price maintenance’ – de nitely not a discussion that would be taking place these days!
Discussions about the retail price maintenance scheme would go on for some time as Association member companies found it dif cult to manage and police.
BHTA 100 years