E Laxon & Co - Wholesale Grocers

I believe Tom was there to the bitter end. No-one dare cross him, I've known him to chase people out of the provisions dept with a meat cleaver!

Hi Graham Gallimore (gal or gally) l started Laxons in Nov 1974 left in 1987 great place to work down to the mad people who worked there Tony Kelly was inwards gaffer Higgs was warehouse manager Fred Munday had shares in the place I think Ray Lee was a supervisor with Tony Cunningham Laxons was taken over a few times over the years it is still going with Brakes the latest owners up at Walsgrave

Fred Munday must have done some time there, sure that he was there in my time 60/61.

Hi Gally, welcome to our forum! Your names have triggered some more from me (see below) Slash1: Not sure when Fred started, but I know he was based down in Gas Street before they moved to Charter Ave. More names, although not all necessarily from the same period... Arthur Hutchinson - Warehouse Director Roy Higgs - Warehouse Manager David Kirk - Warehouse Manager (not sure about first name) Peter Allen - Assembly supervisor Fred Hill - Forklift Mechanic Martin ? - Forklift Mechanic Len Booth - Assembly (promoted to supervisor) Roy Browning - Assembly (promoted to supervisor) Alan Irvine - Assembly (promoted to supervisor?) Evan Williams - Assembly Peter Allen - Transport supervisor, Assembly supervisor June Deakin - Transport Office Stan Strong - Transport supervisor Dave Ion - Garage mechanic (Union Rep, later promoted to warehouse supervisor) Geoff Campbell - Goods Inwards Ted ??? - Goods inwards - unloading Clive Porter - Goods Inwards + Union Rep Archie Allen - Goods Inwards - son of Peter Allen Steven Mundy - Goods Inwards (Temp) - son of Fred Mundy Bernard Burgham - Replenishment Dave Voisey - Replenishment Tony Cunningham (originally Replenishment) married Jackie John Day (Replenishment - promoted to Warehouse Manager) Steve Powner (Assembly - promoted to Goods Inwards supervisor) Carol Chambers - Warehouse Office Mabel Strong - Canteen manager Tony Rossborough - Goods Inwards (brother of Cov Rugby player; Peter) Mabel Bishop - Good Inwards Office Paul Towler - night-shift replenishment Mel Haywood - night-shift replenishment Tony Cain - Replenishment Norman Preston - Replenishment Chris Dare - Replenishment Ray Lee - Returns supervisor (later became Wines/spirits/Tobacco supervisor) Kevin Hopkins (Driver, promoted to Returns supervisor, then moved to Goods Inwards) Bob ??? - (Driver & Senior Union Rep) George Albrighton - Driver Ron Skinner - Cleaner Bill McKechnie - Caretaker Do you hear anything from Geoff? Not seen him for a long while. Edit: names added to list

TonyS. What did they 'replenish'?

Hi Norm, people on "Replenishment" were mainly forklift truck drivers. Assemblers picked orders from pallets of product at ground level, the replenishment team lifted pallets down that were stored on racking above and filled up (replenished) stock as it was required by the assemblers. Replenishment teams were given a computer printout of goods that would be required each day so had some idea of what was going to be needed. The BIG problem was we were invariably under-staffed (I'm sure I've heard that one before!) so rarely finished one days assembly until well into the next day so the printouts were rarely of much use.

Sure that Peter Allen was there in my time.Thought that he was deputy transport/despatch manager. Mr Blackburn was warehouse manager in my day, have heard from him a few years ago, was well in his 80's. Mr Leonard Laxon was still around, were there any Laxons around in later days. I started in August 1959, from school. Had only been there a couple of weeks, when one morning before work, I felt poorly. Presumably, due to my newness, did not dare not to go to work, so got on my No 7 bus and went anyway. Not long after arriving I told my Manager, Norman Gough, Cheese Department Manager that I wasn't feeling well, A Mr Jeavons was summoned, he worked in the Sales Office I believe and also seemed to cover First Aid. He gave me some "bicarbonate of soda", apparently could not have done the trick, as Mr Leonard Laxon took me home in his very posh car. Happy days and very happy memories. Fortunately, after that I never had a day off sick till I retired at 70ish.

Yes, you're right, Peter Allen was over transport/despatch at one time, then moved to run the 'assembly' section in the warehouse. Nice bloke, but lets just say he wasn't afraid of confrontation! He was a little way behind Stan Strong, but also liked to call a spade a spade. His son worked in Goods Inwards but I can't for the life of me remember his name. Edit: Archie Allen (now added to list above)

I'm sure Leonard was still around when I joined in '69. Did he have a disabled arm/hand? I recall him wearing a black glove on the hand he couldn't use.

Thanks for that TonyS. I would like to point out how easy it is to miss a post, as I am set on most recent post first, I only saw Slash1s response and could have missed yours, so after what happened a few days ago,i now always scroll back.

Thanks for your comment Norm, I'll mention it to our programming team PS. Don't forget that NEW posts are tagged with the red 'NEW' flag on your return to a topic.

TonyS...

That stirs the old grey matter. You are correct, he did have a dickey arm/hand. Was covered in black glove type thing. What a memory, that is about 55/56 years ago for me. Thank you.

Laxons also owned a 'convalescent' home down in Wales (I think) and when they finally closed it they sent a couple of wagons to collect its contents and bring it all back to the warehouse in Canley. On the Saturday morning they off-loaded all this stuff; tables, chairs, beds, three piece suites, carpets, TVs , the list was almost endless, onto the loading dock. They decided to auction all this stuff, so one of the management jumped up on a box and acted as auctioneer. I noticed a rather modern looking Murphy TV, it had a green cabinet. I think Murphy issued several different coloured versions of these TV's with white, orange & green cabinets with the channel-change push-buttons along the top. I seem to remember the original model had an "inverted trumpet" style stand - which was missing from this specimen. The bidding gradually crept up and the hammer finaly came down at £36!! (About two weeks wages at that time!) My wife, who had come with me, commented "What idiot would spend THAT much on a second hand TV?" I think you can guess the answer to that!! All I will say is it took three weeks for the damage to my ribs to heal.

Another memory of Laxon's, how long it lasted I obviously don't know. Not sure whether it was weekly or monthly, dented tin sales. Anyone else recall this?