65 years in business!

This year marks a very special time for our company – it’s our anniversary. It’s a bit hard to believe but this is our 65^th year in business.

We’ve always been dedicated to providing customers with the very best products available and, more recently, we’ve become real pioneers in work at height safety.

Formed in 1948 by Clifford Brown, Browns Ladders began by manufacturing and supplying its own timber ladders and steps to people and organisations throughout the North West.

There certainly have been some interesting stories over the years here at Browns.

In the early 70s, when Browns manufactured its own timber ladders, we supplied some to ‘Chris Bonnington’ for a climbing expedition up the famous south face of ‘Annapurna’ in the Himalayas. The ladders were used to help the explorers span ravines.

Unfortunately, a member of the expedition, Ian Clough, died on the descent and his body was brought down using a Browns ladder as a stretcher!

In 1977, Nelson Joinery took over the firm. The premises were altered and a new extension built which remains very much the same today.

As the Health and Safety Executive began to place more emphasis on the importance of safety when working at height, we strived to help the country become safer by following their guidelines.

1997 saw the birth of our first on-site ladder inspections and, in 1998, we introduced our ladder safety training for companies who work at height regularly.

Browns again changed ownership in 2001 and is now run by dedicated owners Barbara and Trevor Ginley.

More recently, our step ladders have even been on television.

In 2004, Boscastle in Cornwall was flooded. The BBC programme ‘Changing Rooms’ did a Christmas Special documenting the renovation of the village. That’s right – we supplied the ladders and working equipment in the show to help Lawrence Llewlyn-Bowen with this project.

We’ve really grown over the past few the years, but our dedication to customer service has stayed the same.

We now supply an extensive range of reliable, high quality working at height equipment – from step ladders to scaffolding and we are recognised as having among the best knowledge of work at height safety in the country.