1960s WORK
0127 Polymeric Production (boots)
BTR’s boot-making operations were part of my business. They were located in a separate factory, about a mile away from the main one. It had been, until relatively recently, the largest manufacture of rubber boots in United Kingdom. Thus its Bull's-Eye brand had been the chosen boots which my father wore. It was, though, in the business of handmade boots. Thus, each individual boot was built up, on a last, from strips of rubber moulded or cut in separate departments.
The whole process started by producing sheet rubber, and in particular fabric bonded to rubber, on machines called calendars. These were really like rather large wringers, where the rubber was put in on one-side and squeezed - into a long thin strip - out of the other side. When it was coating material, cotton, the only difference was that the bowls of the machine were run at slightly different speeds thus forcing the rubber into the cotton. All of this material was then moved to ‘clicker’ presses.
A sheet of rubber material was laid out on the press and various formers, actually shapes with knife sharp edges, were placed by hand on it. The press was then brought down, to ‘click’ through the sheet; to produce a piece of material to the required shape. For each boot, therefore, a whole range of these formers were needed. It was even worse than that, in as much as there had to be a whole range of these for each size of boot.
These pieces were then laid out on a last, of which, again, hundreds were required to match the range of sizes and shapes in the range. The workers then proceeded, by hand, to build up the boots in much the same way that leather boots or shoes are still built. The only difference was that, instead of being stitched, they were glued with latex rubber. It was a fairly skilled process, and certainly a complex one. The boots were then put into large autoclaves to vulcanise. All in all, it produced a very good product, but one that was expensive. Our competitors had recently invested in injection moulding equipment which produced a whole boot in one action.
There were something like six hundred people working on our factory floor.
The problem was that my predecessor, who John Cahill thought had been a marvellous businessman, had discovered the secret to making paper profits out of the boots -- despite the competitors inherently cheaper processes. What he had discovered was that the BTR overheads were recovered in the main when the boots were put into warehouse, and not when they were sold! Accordingly, he had filled a nearby warehouse with one million pairs of unsaleable boots. This boosted his profit, on paper, and made him look good for the board; but it left us with an enormous great millstone round our neck. Ultimately I had to shut down the factory for more than six months, laying off 700 people, until we worked our way through those million boots. I remember discreetly suggesting, one November fifth, that people might like to have their firework parties near to the warehouse, since all rubber products are highly flammable. Unfortunately, no one took up my suggestion.
In terms of production this factory ran itself. It had been running for years, and everyone knew what they had to do. It was a delight in that respect. In financial terms it was a nightmare. There was no way that the production process could remain competitive, and added to that was the millstone of one million pairs boots in the warehouse. I think BTR thought that, as a consumer marketing expert, I would have the magic answer. I didn't!
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