History
In 2001 The Hill Brush Company Ltd bought Champion Brush in Baltimore Maryland, to form a new 100% owned subsidiary, Hill Brush Inc. Champion Brush was the last functioning part of the old Atlantic Brush Company, which made the quality line of ‘Winner’s Circle’ brand grooming brushes. The whole business, machinery and employees, was moved to new 14,000ft2 premises a couple of miles away. Hill Brush Inc offers both the Champion and Hill ‘Salmon’ ranges of Grooming Brushes, which together make the widest range of Grooming Brushes available in the US. The Champion line is now exported back to Europe. Hill Brush Inc also stocks and distributes the high quality ‘Salmon’ Food Service line, and makes or stocks many other types of brushes including horse brushes.
The Hill Brush Company Ltd was founded in South West England in 1922 by brothers Fred and Bill Coward, who after returning from the front in World War One wanted to establish a business of their own. Their father Arthur Coward had been a brush back maker before World War One, so they already had some knowledge of the brush making process. In those days brooms were made by hand, with the holes in the wood blocks being hand bored, while each tuft was ‘glued’ in using hot pitch. The brothers also made special bottle cleaning brushes for dairies, and at the time there was only one other company in Europe able to make them. Sales grew quickly. The brooms and brushes they made were used on local farms, for outdoor sweeping, dairies and animal grooming. Bill often used to deliver products on his motorbike.
It was around this time that the brothers adopted the ‘Salmon’ logo for their products. In those days there were many small brush making businesses, so all the obvious symbols had been taken already. They chose the Salmon simply as a reminder of what they would rather be doing – going fishing.
In 1927 the business moved to a nearby disused silk mill with a water wheel. New technology – harder drill bits that kept their edge and, a little later, semi automatic brush making machinery – was coming onto the market. The water wheel was used to power the new machinery and the production of brooms became much quicker and cheaper. Happily the mill pond also enabled Bill to go fishing out of his office window. In 1932 the factory was visited by the Prince of Wales.
In 1935 the expanding business moved again to its present 10 acre site in Mere, Wiltshire.
Although all the young men were drafted from 1940 during World War II, the business managed to keep going. The company was asked to make gun pull-throughs for the war effort, and despite the almost complete lack of suitable materials, succeeded through improvisation. In their spare time Fred and Bill worked in the Home Guard, preparing to repel an expected invasion and rounding up enemy airmen who had been shot down. Later they had American troops billeted with them, and they kept in contact with many of them to the end of their lives.
In 1952 the business was again visited by royalty, this time by Princess Elizabeth, shortly to be crowned Queen Elizabeth II. In 1981 Hill Brush was honored with a Royal Warrant to HM The Queen as a supplier to the Royal Household.
The Company expanded quickly in the 1950s. It had its own saw mill and wood working department that allowed versatility and ensured consistent quality. By the 1990s the Company was buying and processing over 4,000 tons of timber a year. The company also bought natural fibers from around the world, and processed them on site. Again, this allowed a reliability and consistency of supply that was rarely found elsewhere. From around 1970 the business began using plastic backs and filaments as well as natural ones. It was at this time that Hill Brush began developing Food Factory cleaning brushes that had great hygienic advantages over traditional wooden and natural fiber products. Meanwhile, there was a constant program of investing in the most advanced machinery available. Today Hill Brush has a very modern, well maintained fleet of highly sophisticated computer controlled brush making machines, capable of making hundreds of brushes an hour, backed up by a knowledgeable, creative and experienced engineering department. These factors have allowed the business not only to offer over 1000 standard catalog lines, but also to make an equal number of special brush lines made to customer specification, for anything from pharmaceutical production lines to potato cleaning machines.
In 1997 a modern office complex was completed, and in 1999 an additional 12,000 ft2 of brand new warehousing was opened, reflecting the Company’s drive to ensure a first rate customer service as well as excellent product quality.
In 2003 Hill Brush Ltd acquired Herrewege Brush in Northern England, merging similar product lines and allowing expansion into new markets. The purchase leaves Hill Brush as the foremost British brush manufacturer and a leading supplier world wide.
