From a garage in Tower Road, Bournemouth, in September 1983 Jonathan Aris started Tower Supplies.
Many years on and the company mission remains the same – make the workplace a better place – albeit this is now achieved through a vast array of intelligent products and solutions that protect people and enhance their environment.
From handwritten orders in 1983 we now receive virtually all orders electronically – most through our own online system.
A 75,000sq-foot Distribution Centre with tens of thousands of bar-coded products and in-house logo application facility is a huge advancement from the set-up in the early eighties.
Tower’s founding customers expected personal weekly deliveries. Nowadays same day despatch of orders made by 2pm from our vast range of stocked items is the norm.
Our own brand of “Bear” durable wearable products were introduced and we now have many Tower products in numerous PPE categories.
We have evolved with perception of health and safety in the workplace from optional usage rationale when we started, through a mandated PPE requirement era and to now being part of an integral safety culture with customers.
The price of a product remains important – main items are a lot cheaper nowadays – but we now support more customers with measurement of the cost-in-use of a product.
When we reached our 35 year milestone we took the opportunity to think what our mission – make the workplace a better place – will involve when we’re 50 years old. The incorporation of well-being with health and safety is being recognised already but will increase. The world is more environmentally aware however we believe that the safe, secure and sustainable disposable PPE and workwear will be considered more. Wearable technology and the internet-of-things may revolutionise how we monitor, consumable and replenish products.
We’ve got lots to look forward to.
Bruce Woodfield, Director of Sales & Customer Services
01202 718000 | bruce.woodfield@towersupplies.com
This article is featured in the June edition of the Dorset Business Focus magazine. Read on the online version here.