29th September 2018 will see both staff and customers celebrating 40 years of trading in the industrial boiler market at Ripon Races.
Our founder, John Bashall, got into boilers midway through his electrical apprenticeship, before been head hunted by Thompson Cochran boilers at the age of 21.
In the early 70’s, the UK was a manufacturing powerhouse and John became one of two commissioning engineers in the Yorkshire area.
Set against a backdrop of political and economical strife, the UK’s economy hit a brick wall. Nationalised industries such as coal, steel, mining, transport and car manufacturing were recording huge losses. The unions ruled and never a week went by when there wasn’t a strike somewhere. Manufacturing in the UK started to rapidly decline and traditional industries such as heavy engineering all but disappeared.
As a result, boiler sales dried up and John was transferred over to the Servicing side where his thoughts turned to the possibility of starting his own business. A loan from the bank, combined with some savings gave him sufficient money to buy a car and support his family for 3 months, hence on the Ist June, John Bashall Combustions was born.
In fact, John’s very first customer was Seabrook Crisps whom JBC still look after today.
With no computers or mobile phones, it was difficult to communicate in those days. John had a telephone answering machine which was rented. It was huge and cost a fortune. His wife answered customer calls and would ring the sites where John was working. Accounts were done manually and John relied heavily on the post.
As the company started to grow he took on two partners both of whom he used to work with and the first premises were a small shop and office in Stanningley, Leeds.
John’s “vision” for the company was to provide the customer with a “one stop shop” and he started to take on skilled personnel as the company started to grow. One partner was lost early on and John bought the other one out later which gave him back complete control of the business. And the rest is history!
JBC developed a strong reputation in the steam and combustion markets for servicing and maintenance, expanding the range of services to include statutory boiler inspections, repairs, pipework, turn-key installations and energy efficiency solutions.
This winning formula was replicated in several regional offices, allowing for National coverage and strengthened JBC’s role as the leading industrial aftercare provider in the United Kingdom.
John retired from the business in 2014, although his expertise is still often called upon today in an advisory and consultation capacity.