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100 years of History As the oldest and longest serving employee of Riley Dunn & Wilson Ltd, I am probably the best qualified to comment on the history of the company. RDW has always been known as a family firm and one that has served the people of Falkirk for the last 100 years by providing employment opportunities in the district. I joined the Company as a 15 years old apprentice bookbinder on the 28th August 1961 and to say it is a family company, well I had 2 sisters, a brother-in -law and an aunt all working in the Falkirk factory. I later met and married my wife Janet in the bindery and we were not unique, the numbers of couples who met and married whilst in the firms employment must number at least 30 couples. I have witnessed many changes in my time, the first major occurrence happened at the time I started, when the company was threatened with legal action by the publishers Penguin because we were buying in their books, giving them reinforced bindings and then selling them on to the libraries. We got round that particular problem by getting the libraries to buy the books then send them into us for binding. The next major change was in the early 70s when the Company was approached by the British Library to see if we were interested in entering the field of paper conservation. The decision to go ahead was perhaps the most influential decision the Dunn family made, as the skills and treatments learned since have primarily been responsible for the company still being here to this day. By undertaking this type of work the company was able to penetrate new more lucrative markets which has given us more stability and allowed us to cope better with the changes and declines in our core markets. Later in the 1970s, the American Binding Institute was blossoming and there were huge investments made in automated machinery for the bookbinding industry. RDW again recognised the need to adapt and upgrade our equipment with investments being made in Rounder & Backing machines, Hydropresses and Versamatic casing-in machines. The biggest investment we made was in computerised lettering machines, firstly with RB/7 then with System 3. These machines allowed the company to streamline the production throughput whilst maintaining the quality standards the Company is renowned for. Our industry is going through another major change with e-journals having a bigger impact each year so it’s vital that we as a company diversify into new products and markets. 100 years trading is a tremendous achievement, especially within the current climate, I have enjoyed the changes, some better than others but what drives myself and others within the Company on are the challenges. We have to prepare the Company and our staff to cope with new concepts whilst laying strong foundations for the next generation to carry on. I have been fortunate in my working life, I have bound and gold tooled leather bindings for presentation to Royalty, I have been privileged to work in some of the most beautiful and famous libraries within the UK and abroad, I have been allowed to manage many major projects the company has undertaken through the years and I have been employed in consultancy work in Portugal. The diverse nature of the problems we face means things are never dull, each day can bring a new challenge, the Company is strong and will start the next 100 years in good shape. |