Huddersfield's Fired Up Group buys Corby trouser press firm

May 14 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT’S a familiar feature in many hotel rooms – the famous Corby trouser press.

Now a Huddersfield company has taken over the Corby business in an £800,000 deal.

Fired Up Group, based at the former bus depot on St Thomas’ Road, Longroyd Bridge, said buying John Corby Ltd would help open the door to selling Fired Up’s existing products to the hotels and hospitality sector.

Fired up managing director Richard Kaye said: “Corby is a highly respected brand and caters to a market we want to enter.

“Corby is widely known for its trouser press, but it also makes and distributes a range of products from kettles and hair driers to ironing equipment and shower fittings – everything you find in the hotel bedroom.

“We manufacture wood-based products, including fitted bedroom furniture, which fit well with Corby’s hotel amenity products.”

Corby, which has a factory at Peterlee, Co Durham, and headquarters in Andover, Kent, was sold by parent Jourden plc.

Corby achieved turnover totalling £3.5m in 2008 – with exports accounting for 50% of sales. Corby has customers in 50 countries.

Mr Kaye said Corby’s products would be added to the Fired Up range, which also includes fires and fireplaces, radiators and wine coolers sold through retailers such as B&Q, Argos, Home base and Littlewoods.

Fired Up Group has a turnover exceeding £10m. It employs 60 people at its 110,000sq ft premises at Longroyd bridge and a further 200 people at a factory in Zhon Shan, China.