Roger Needham becomes the sole distributor for “Speedry Magic Markers” range. The company went from strength-to-strength and quickly grew to reach a national level.
Following the success of national distribution, in November 1962 Roger Needham & Sons Ltd was formally established. With its first offices based at 44 Green End, Whitchurch, Shropshire.
In the early 1970’s, Roger Needham & Sons ventured into the rubber stamp industry, setting up a premises on Fountain Street, Manchester. Sadly, in the early 1990’s the premises was demolished and the business was moved to Salford. The Salford plant and rubber stamp manufacturing division was finally brought to a close in 2007.
During the early 1970’s, having identified a niche in the market, The Needham Group became a fluids manufacturer in its own right and began developing the Britink range of industrial fluids. The Britink brand of industrial inks, markers and equipment expanded throughout the years. To this day, our Research and Development capabilities we continue to develop our Britink range, continuously formulating and producing innovative fluids to meet bespoke and traditional industrial applications.
The company established the new company headquarters: The House of Needham, Alkington Road, Whitchurch. Closely followed by new manufacturing facilities in Prees, Shropshire. By the mid 70’s, Roger Needham & Sons Ltd and had become a well-know ink development company.
Following the company’s first foray into the inkjet market, as distributors for American brand of Drop-On-Demand (DOD) printer called “Little David”, laboratories & offices where setup in Ware, Hertfordshire to begin to research & develop new inks to support this emerging sector.
David Needham, Roger Needham’s son joins the company after a career as a fast-jet pilot in the Royal Air Force.
Roger Needham sadly passes away. Leaving his son, David Needham, to take over the business.
The Alkington Road offices and Prees facility are sold and the company moves to its new (current headquarters) premises on Waymills Industrial Estate.
The company begins to trade as “The Needham Group”. The reason behind this move was to create an overseeing body which possessed more specialist divisions so as they could individually focus on separate market sectors such as inks, coding and similar.
The Needham Group becomes the exclusive European distributor for Simply Spray, a revolutionary spray-able fabric paint. Developed in the USA, this unique and patented product had been successfully marketed in a number of countries, most notably the USA, Australia and in Asia, where it gained sales in excess of 2 million units per year. This seemed a natural extension to The Needham Group’s activities, having had media and TV attention, this is an area that continues to grow in tandem with public awareness.
In-line with The Needham Group’s ethos, the two primary divisions are made fully independent trading bodies. Needham Inks Limited and Needham Coding Limited are born.
Utilising decades of experience within the laser technology space, Needham Laser Technologies Ltd is born and shifts its focus to manufacturing a range of British-made high quality laser marking machines.