Our Timeline
1900
Henry & William Hutson purchase the business from Holland Brothers who were running an ironmongers and bicycle shop at 24 Strait Bargate. Hutson Brothers came into existence on 2nd June 1900. Sadly William passes away shortly afterwards leaving Henry to run the business
1905
With business booming we move to larger premises at nearby 11 Wide Bargate, from here the Ironmongery business grew along with a very busy plumbing & heating department. We installed heating systems to many churches and businesses in the surrounding areas.
1945
After the Second World War Henry's three sons Geoff, Bert & Maurice returned to the business and as keen sportsmen a sports department was added and ran alongside the existing parts of the business. In July 1946 we became a limited company and became known as 'Hutsons (Ironmongers) Limited
1976
Up until this point all our engraving work had been outsourced, Geoff's only son Richard who had joined the business in 1956 instigated the purchase of a pantograph engraving machine, allowing us to keep control of the whole process. A larger machine was added allowing us to produce our own house signs.
1988
Richard's two sons Doug & Al joined the company in the mid eighties and with an increasingly large workload for the engraving department the decision was made to purchase a computerised machine. Due to the success of this a larger machine was also purchased allowing us to manufacture larger signs.
1991
Customer demand for larger signs led to the purchase of our first vinyl cutter in January 1991, this allowed us to produce larger signs than the engraving machines were capable of. This also gave us the ability to produce lettering for vehicles and we haven't looked back.
1993
The ability to print digitally onto self adhesive vinyl was revolutionised by the Gerber Edge, we were one of the first companies in the UK to invest in this new technology. In fact we still run one of its successors to this day, testament to the quality of the machine.
2002
Large format printers become more accessible and we purchase our first machine, this opened up avenues into retail display work and large format banners. We are now on our fourth machine allowing us to print up to 1500mm wide on a whole host of materials.
2014
Investment in a Trotec 400 Laser engraver and cutter speeds up our engraving capability on plastics greatly, also for the first time enabling us to manufacture the Trodat range of rubber and self inking stamps
2021
We install our first UV flat bed printer allowing us to print in full colour directly on to plastic and aluminium composite, at this point Safety-Zone is born
