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A full page advert in the Daily Mail in June 1930 started the huge growth of the company, and in 1934 John White Footwear was launched as a public company and output soared to over 2 million pairs a year. Five years later it was up to 3 million, and the company now had 2,000 employees. During the war the company supplied 8 million pairs of boots to the forces.
John White was still at the helm of the company and after the war he began selling to America, and with exports rising the company was still growing. [USA Trip 1950] After John retired in 1962, he still took an interest in the company, but it was starting to decline. The chairman, Basil Lindsay-Fynn who had also helped in the original public floatation of the company, invited George McWatters to succeed him at the end of 1966. Mr McWatters chose management consultant Philip Birch to join the company as his assistant, and he joined the board in 1968. Together they turned the company back into a thriving concern.
In May 1972 George Ward Holdings Limited joined the John White Footwear, and the new company was now titled "Ward White". The following year they acquired G B Britton & Sons. In 1974 McWatters and Birch were running an organisation of 34 companies, operating in nine countried, and producing 350,000 pairs a week, with a turnover of £40 million a year. They developed separate divisions within the company, specialising in manufacture, export, distribution, saftey footwear, and engineering.
The move into safety footwear came in 1974 when they bought Betts & Broughton, and they also acquired Portland Shoes, of Leicester, founded in 1872 and one of the largest makers of ladies' wider fitting shoes. Jack Dodson was now the company's Chief Executive for production, and Arthur Jolley was Chief Executive for the safety footwear division. "Tuskers" were launched in 1977 with an elephant symbol to stress the strength of this safety range.
Also in the late 1970s leisure shoes and the famous "Rogues" ranges were brought in, and a range under a licensing with an American company, Blue Bell Incorporated, they made a range called "Walking Wrangler". TUF and GLUV, and ladies' footwear with "Jane White" branding, all became well known in their leisure wear ranges. Ian Rose was Chief Executiveof this division. The company also had a chain of stores, and a mail order service, selling directly to the public.
The company also had an established engineering division since 1962, when "John White Footwear Holdings" bought Norris Industries of Rushden. This was under the control of Chief Executive Walter Landmann. As well as making machines for the tanning industry and industrial cleaning machines, they offered servicing and fitting of plant, and aslo had an agency for electrical components. The engineering division also acquired several other companies: Universal Industrial Appliances (UIA), makers of industrial floor cleaners, and vaccuum cleaners, Sterling Industries Kent Panda Cleaning Machines, and P & H Engineering of Huntingdon, who specialised in racks, housings and enclosures for the electronics industry.
In the 1970s the company moved up from a turnover of £4.9 million, to a group turnover of £100 million, taking over many other companies, and giving them a much wider range of footwear and other interests in cleaning, engineering and machinery.
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Those running the Company in 1979
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Chair - George McWatters
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Philip Birch
MD
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Jack Dodson
production
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Arthur Jolley
safetywear
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Ian Rose
leisurewear
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Walter Landmann
engineering
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Packing for export at Higham Ferrers factory
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Tuf trademarks for German and Dutch markets
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Ward White operations in the UK in 1979
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Manufacturing and distribution units
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Number of employees |
|
1
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Nuneaton, Warwickshire |
242
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|
2
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Mancetter, Warwicks |
104
|
|
3
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Barwell, Leicesters |
366
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|
4
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Northampton |
299
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|
5
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Walgrave, Northamptonshire |
139
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|
6
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Bridgend, Mid. Glamorgan |
82
|
|
7
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Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire |
445
|
|
8
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Rushden, Northamptonshire |
337
|
|
9
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Corby, Northamptonshire |
114
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|
10
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Ammanford, Dyfed |
176
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|
11
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Desborough, Northamptonshire |
170
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|
12
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Wilbarston, Northamptonshire |
23
|
|
13
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Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire |
76
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14
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Wigan, Lancashire |
343
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|
15
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Hollingworth, Cheshire |
90
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16
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Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire |
258
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|
17
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Bristol |
771
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|
18
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Brynmawr, Gwent |
259
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19
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Leicester |
350
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| Distribution units |
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20
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Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire |
22
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|
21
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Anstey, Leicestershire |
30
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|
22
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Newcastle |
7
|
|
23
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Glasgow |
29
|
|
24
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Edinburgh |
5
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| Engineering |
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25
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Rushden, Northamptonshire |
147
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26
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Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire |
55
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| Chain of 100 retail footwear shops |
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Head office, Oadby, Leicestershire. |
333
|
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Total
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5,272
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| The group also has manufacturing and distribution units in: |
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Killarney, Republic of Ireland; Ravenstein, Holland;
Hessisch Oldendorf, W. Germany; Sydney, Australia; |
| and distribution units in: |
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Antwerp, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Fredrikstad, Norway. |
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