1934 - 1945

The company was first incorporated in 1934 as a timber component manufacturer, making such diverse components as staircases, food trays, door frames and even Police truncheons!

During World War Two the company was taken over by the War Office and produced among other things the bomb bay doors of the Mosquito Bomber and tail fin sections for the Lancaster Bomber. The company was also responsible for repairing air frames from the Wellington Bomber.

After the war came to an end, the considerable challenge of rebuilding the company’s peacetime activities came to the then Managing Director A. E. Foster (son of the founder).

A. E. Foster happened to live next door to the Managing Director of a company called Bakelite, which had been experimenting with new plastic resin technologies in conjunction with decorative paper. This was an early form of what we know today as High Pressure Laminate.

The Managing Director of Bakelite would literally pass trial pieces of plastic laminate to A. E. Foster who would then use his wood working machinery and expertise at the factory to test the commercial potential of the material. As we all know, Plastic Laminate proved to be one of the post war furniture and construction industry success stories.

With the introduction of the Formica brand in the early 1950’s came a dramatic increase in the popularity of laminate-faced furniture items. Therefore, with their experience of utilising the product W H Foster & Sons Ltd became one of the leading furniture component manufacturers supplying the trade with vast quantities of Formica faced table tops.

Many other fabrication businesses set up in the wake of this booming trade and A. E. Foster’s sons Tony & Derek saw an opportunity to set up a distribution business selling Formica laminate sheets to these other laminate fabricators. Today this business is known as Blackheath Products Ltd.

Tony Foster was a founder member of the Laminated Plastic Fabrication Trade Association (L.P.F.A), which is still a strong voice in the industry and is now referred to as the BLFA or British Laminated Fabricators Association.

Derek developed machinery that allowed the laminate to be ‘post-formed’ around a tight radius. This created a new scope for laminate which allowed designers to create furniture with smooth continuous round edges.

During the 1960’s the close relationship with Formica led to a licensed manufacturing agreement for W H Foster & Sons Ltd to produce Formica Lifeseal Cubicles. This venture took the Company into the construction industry for the first time.

The 1970’s saw the Company expand its offer with the creation of an installation team to install the range of cubicles, access/wall panels and wash basin units into public areas.

The explosion of interest in Solid Surfacing materials in the 1980’s led to the Company becoming an approved Corian fabricator. Following a significant investment in machinery and training the Company soon became one of the leading fabricators of this material. This opened the way for expansion through the acquisition of large contracts for groups such as Warner Village Cinemas and Cine UK.

In the 1990’s the decision was made to invest in a large way to keep the Company at the sharp end of the industry. £750,000.00 was invested in:

• Improvements to the factory layout and offices.
• Computer aided woodworking machinery including a machining centre.
• Autocad software for producing and amending working drawings.
• A new range of cubicles with a new brand name: CUBASE

In the year 2000 a new range of brochures were designed and printed in order to market the product range more effectively. This brochure collection has been continually added to in the years since to include subjects specific to market sectors like Healthcare and Education.

A further investment plan of £250,000.00 for machinery etc. began in 2002 and included a second machining centre to cope with large volume orders of panel systems.

At the same time, the Company ventured in to the world of Pre-plumbed washroom panels for schools, hospitals and offices. Success in this market sector was swift and gave evidence of the Company’s ability to create good supply networks in order to offer the end user unparalleled quality, service and value for money.

In 2005 the company was the subject of a ‘Management Buy Out’. The new owners have already invested in new premises with state of the art production facilities and offices. The company employs over 40 people and now has a turnover in excess of £4m, largely due to major successes with PFI healthcare and BSF education projects.

Our determination is to excel at what we do and continue as one of the leading manufacturers and installers of quality washroom systems.