1963
Joined "Robin Sturgess Accessories" based in Leicester to take on the management and development of the county's first speed shop catering for the needs of sporting motorists and younger drivers.
1964
Introduced a much expanded range of "go-faster" products such as Les Leston wood rim steering wheels, the very first leather covered steering wheels, the earliest quartz-halogen driving lights from Carello, as well as Maserati air horns, Corbeau racing seats, and Dunlop alloy wheels.
1965 - 1967
The James Bond Bullet Hole transfers were launched to coincide (unofficially) with the second 007 film "From Russia with Love" and went on to sell worldwide, providing enough funds to start a van wholesale operation for the main motor sporting range of products.
Having spotted the opportunity for supplying our range of products to other shops in the East Midlands Chris went out on the road and opened up sufficient new accounts to justify the employment of two full-time van salesmen. The increased distribution led to the company obtaining further specialised exclusive area distributorships such as Speedwell, Alexander Engineering, Paddy Hopkirk, Cibie lighting, Harry Moss and Richard Grant G.T. Wheels
1968
Continued growth, along with the need to separate retail from wholesale, forced a move to larger premises at Abbey Lane Leicester ( opened by Graham Hill ) At that time the decision was made to establish R. S. A. Factors as a separate entity from the shop operation carrying an even wider range of specialised motor sporting products with still wider geographical coverage. A new service was set up to offer long-range dispatch to speed shops from Scotland to the Channel Islands with a range of over 6000 products. This service was supported by twice yearly sales visits from Chris together with a thirty page "Trade Discount Catalogue" published monthly, which became a car accessory "bible" for R.S.A.’s regular customers in the trade.
1973
Completely separated motor factoring operations from the shop by taking over premises of 5000 sq. ft.only two doors up the road,and pioneered two innovations in the trade, namely special trade open days and the provision of a full fried lunch plus free real ale from the brewery 100 yds.away, for trade buyers spending over £500 !
1976
Having finally outgrown Abbey Lane a lease was taken on a brand new 11,000 sq ft unit on the Freemans Common trading estate in Leicester in order to trade as a fully fledged cash and carry operation. The successful van delivery division continued trading and indeed, was by now supplying a number of chains of filling stations with their weekly stocks. Set up the first in-house "bistro" for trade customers and created American customising division after visiting various U. S. trade shows in Los Vegas, Atlanta, and Chicago.
Major trade open days included such personalities as Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart. The company embraced early computerised stock control and invoicing systems with an inventory now covering over 21,000 different product lines from more than 300 suppliers.
1977
Due to intense competition in the automotive cash and carry sector, R. S. A. was merged with the Spice and Unwin group, linking us to similar warehouses in Staines, Canning town, Watford, Bristol and Cardiff, with resultant immense buying power.
1978 - 1980
As the managing director of the northern part of the group Chris masterminded the acquisition and opening off a new "flagship" warehouse of 24,000 sq ft on the Parkway trading estate in Sheffield, and thereby consolidated the group’s wholesale distribution base for the North of England.
This brought the group up to seven units each averaging over 20,000 sq ft . Sadly, a power struggle on the main board led to Chris as a minority shareholder parting company in October 1980. Unemployed !
1981 - 1984
Established Mitchell Marketing Ltd., initially working from home as a specialised automotive sales agency.
The first major client was Finnigan's Specialised Paints Ltd, based in Prudhoe, Northumberland. Essentially a mail order company, they had negligible trade distribution of their two main products, HAMMERITE (a unique rust preventing hammer finish paint) and WAXOYL ( a very effective D.I.Y. car cavity rust proofing system).
The postal strike in 1980 had briefly paralysed their business and they were happy to allow Mitchell Marketing the opportunity to minimise their future risks and increase future sales by putting them on the high-street shelf for a commission-only deal. This left them nothing to lose. During 1981 offices were established in Oadby at "Hammerite House" (!) and Chris recruited a team of twelve sub-agents to spearhead Finnigans sales across the U.K. to all major outlets, whilst handling key strategic ones himself.
Finnigans sales when Mitchell Marketing took on the agency in March 1981 were under £1,000,000 per annum and when they finally sold out to the Hunting PLC group in 1984 turnover had reached £3,600,000 and WAXOYL had won the industry's "Profit-maker of the Year Award" two years running ,and also the industry's" Product of the Year" award two years running and both products had become generic names.
1984 - 1988
By mid.' 84 Chris Mitchell's agency had a twelve strong team of agents, a widely respected track record in promotion and marketing, but with Finnigans gone, no products.
Although the "Backflash" car rear window styling product was in its early launch stages it was still mainly unknown. During that summer at a trade cricketing event Chris was approached by a Mr Toms of Petrolon UK Ltd who had been trying to sell an oil treatment called "Slick 50" for some 18 months but had failed to achieve more than £1000 worth of sales, partly because of inexperience and partly because it was triple the price of its nearest friction-reducing competitor.In short, a deal was struck whereby Mitchell Marketing would re-package and re-brand and re-launch the product having in the meantime identified various U.S.P.s which could, if correctly marketed, more than justify the price premium and ensure success in the market place.
The agents were re-deployed, a press launch held and trade exhibition space booked.
The key element was an aggressive advertising campaign plunging straight into national daily papers and supported by a guaranteed availability in over 400 Halford stores. It worked! Trade take-up was immediate and continued heavy advertising pulled through massive demand to the extent that an immediate move was required to a 5000 sq ft warehouse in Wigston with fork- lift truck handling facilities.
In 1986 Slick won the industry’s prestigious AAR award for “Best Packaged Product”
Various successful "Slick 50" range additions came on stream and the marketing moved up a gear in '87 and '88 with a T.V campaign fronted by Roger Clark the rally driver.
At the same time the Backflash really took off and caught the imagination of the younger motorists and with over 30 titles ,the vivid red “sliced” graphics became visible on the back windows of cars the length and breadth of the country. Total sales eventually exceeded 2 million units.
The "Protectalines" for headlamp styling was introduced in 1987 as well as the "Arthur Daley" tax disc holder to capitalise on the "Minder" Thames television series.
A major high-profile P.R. activity started in 1987 was the launch, through the the B. R. S. C. C. of the "Slick 50 Road-going Saloon Car Championship" staging races at all Britain's main motor racing circuits and fielding two heats of 25 "Slick 50" stickered race cars at each track. It became such a popular series that it continued for eight years with an immense knock-on benefit to the brand due to the popularity with spectators who loved the close racing.
In 1988 the "Carlini Collection" of Italian influenced car body graphics styling was introduced and became visible on many cars, being stocked by a large number of high-street car accessory outlets, though the mysterious Carlo Carlini became evermore elusive as the range took off.
1989 -1992
Mitchell Marketing had hitherto been forced to buy Slick 50 from Petrolon UK as the territorial licence holders who also held the rights for Holland Belgium and Switzerland, but in 1989 the owners decided to sell, and eventually we purchased the rights "in perpetuity" for all four countries.
Quite a daunting prospect,especially financing it. However, with double the gross profit margin suddenly available, all things were possible.
Immediately the advertising and promotional budget was increased resulting in ever greater sales to an ever receptive trade and end user. In 1990 the "Knuckle buffer" was launched being a pair of realistic plastic clip on knuckles designed to act as car door buffers, although most ended up mounted on tailgates and boot lids for "body in the boot" realism. Whilst another high-profile success, the only problem was keeping production up to demand, and eventually far eastern pirate copies killed it off, but not before nearly one million had been sold.
The ultimate owners of the Slick 50 brand, Petrolon Inc., were based in Texas and having copied the "UK originated" repackaging and marketing concept, had gone from a small but successful mail order outfit to a massive trade marketing and distribution company with sales of over U.S.$138 million. Not surprisingly, they wanted world domination and brand control but Mitchell Marketing were controlling Europe’s most successful markets and were a thorn in their side, as the rest of the world was by now being controlled direct from Houston.
Eventually, after lengthy negotiations, Chris sold the company complete with all the other products in August 1992 (at the age of 50). The other directors and all staff remained, though subsequent events have not reflected well on the American long-distance management.
Key personnel involved :
1965 to 1968 Nollie Noel-Key
1968 to1980 Bob Jones and Terry Scrivens
1977 to 1979 Peter Unwin
1981 to 1988 Isobel Davey
1985 to 1992 Andy Boyle
1986 to 1992 Peter Hale
1989 to 1992 Miles Davey.
From 1998 to 2005 Chris was a director/shareholder of the Eurotech Leisure Group incorporating the "Khyam" brand name for outdoor equipment in the UK and "Campus" for outdoor leisurewear in Poland.
Current activities include the development of the www.dontforgetyourtoothbrush.com website, now acknowleged to be the ultimate packing and reminder list for anyone going on holiday.
Contact Information:
E-mail: chris_mitchell@mac.com
Phone: 0116 2416225
Phone: 0116 2416011
C.S.M.M. Dec 2012