Customer Spotlight: Phil Goodchild

Up first, is Phil Goodchild one of our longstanding customers that relies on the foundry for his business to be a sucess. 

I am a harness maker specialising in heavy horse harness which is a very niche and limited market these days. I run my business full time as I have been established for 25 years and in that time I have built up a wide customer base where I get enough work to keep me going.

For my business to work,  I rely on the foundry that Abbey purchased from Stanley Brothers.  I also used Stanley Bros as it was the only place,   and still is since Abbey England purchased the business that I can obtain the traditional heavy horse harness buckles,  dee's and other fittings I need to be able to make the traditional heavy horse harness that I do.  Without the foundry producing what I need including special orders,  I very much doubt I would be able to supply what my customers require in the traditional styles of buckles that are specific to heavy horse harness so it is very important to me to be able to buy in the UK made traditional hardware,   this could potentially mean I would not have my business making this harness.  

The only option would be to have what I need made abroad and shipped in but the purchase numbers required would be all but impossible for a one man business to sustain,  plus the quality would be drastically reduced.  I also rely on the quality I have access to from the Abbey Foundry.  

 I also have a great long term rapport with the warehouse at Knutsford as I rely on Abbey England to supply me with the workshop requisites I need like glues,  dye's,  threads,   materials like collar check and canvas.  Materials like collar check, I can only get via Abbey so it is important to me for Abbey to keep these lines open which in turn helps manufacturers making such materials in the UK remain in business because without such availability, a bench maker like myself would be stuffed.

Lets do what we can to support local British businesses.

Have a look at Phil's Facebok page HERE