Member Article

North East firm celebrates 150th anniversary

A local family business which started trading in 1858 celebrated its 150th anniversary on Saturday. Stationary and gift store T&G Allan invited former staff members and suppliers to in-store celebrations at its Morpeth and Whitley Bay branches.

Margaret Stephen, great granddaughter of the founder of the business, Thomas Allan flew in from her new home in Argentina to attend the event. She said: “It’s great to see so many familiar faces. A lot of these people have helped the business get to where it is today and it really means a lot to the family to share the celebrations with them.”

Set up by Newcastle-born brothers, Thomas and George Allan in 1858, and located on Collingwood Street in Newcastle, the store was initially a newsagent, stationery shop and bookseller. As new generations of the Allan family emerged and took over the running of the company, the business expanded further and branches were set up in South Shields, Whitley Bay and in 1970 Morpeth. In the 1990s T&G Allan began to roll out its specialist writing store, The Pen Shop.

Today the company has two T&G Allan stores and 31 branches of The Pen Shop across the UK.

Carol Towers, Morpeth store manager, said: “It’s a fabulous achievement for any business to celebrate a big anniversary, but there aren’t many companies who can say they are 150 years old.”

Colin McClymont, managing director for the company, said: “The fact that the company has been flexible enough to adapt to changing economic and market trends, and reinvent itself, has shown that not only were excellent foundations put in place but that the business is forward thinking and has a bright future ahead too.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .