The History of Charles Birch Ltd
The Wilson family Serving the UK’s Shoe Repair Trade for over 130 Years
It was back in 1890 when Matthew Wilson, the Great Grandfather of current Chairman Chris Wilson founded Matthew H Wilson Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne. Matthew was succeeded as Managing Director by his son Albert Wilson in the 1920’s.
A copy of the Matthew H Wilson catalogue from the 1920’s remains in the Charles Birch office. It promotes the new warehouse at 62-66 Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, the new fleet of vans and the garage customers were invited to park in before going out into town. The stock included over 10,000 leather bends across over 60 different tannages (all British), Cherry Blossom, Meltonian and Kiwi were the main shoecare brands and the leather goods department boasted over 14 different styles of leather football (in up to 5 sizes) plus replacement bladders!
With Albert’s eldest son Ronald due to take over the business, his youngest son Eric moved to Leeds in 1955 to open a new Matthew H Wilson Ltd warehouse at 68 Mabgate. At the time there were 18 Leather and Grindery wholesalers in Leeds supplying the local shoe repairers. By establishing his principles of providing a personal and speedy delivery service and a wide range of merchandise at “value for money” prices, Eric succeeded in his initial objective of becoming one of the most progressive and successful suppliers to the repair trade in the area.
Who is Charles Birch?
A phone call from a friend in the trade in 1967 saw Eric Wilson drive to Stoke on Trent the next day where he acquired a small and localised leather merchant, Charles Birch. In the first year he increased the sales of Charles Birch by 400 per cent and the journey that led to Charles Birch being the UK’s most successful supplier to the shoe repair trade had begun.
Two years later Eric purchased the Matthew H Wilson business in Leeds from his father and at the same time he relocated the business to a new 6,000 square foot unit at Croydon Street, in Leeds. In 1971 he acquired Hipwell and Lambert Ltd in Birmingham enabling him to close the Stoke warehouse and service the original Charles Birch customers from there.
In 1979 Charles Birch moved to 43 Cavendish Street, a large three storey, red brick Victorian warehouse which would be its home for the next 23 years.
1980’s Expansion
During the 1980’s new regional warehouses were opened in Glasgow, Haydock, Newport and Belfast. Existing wholesale businesses in Southend on Sea, Kettering and Salisbury were acquired. In 1986 Eric Wilson purchased the wholesale operation of Matthew H Wilson in Newcastle from his brother Ronald.
Next Generation
In 1996 Eric Wilson retired from the business and handed over to his son Chris Wilson who had returned to Leeds in 1993 after spending time in the business in Glasgow, Birmingham, Haydock and Southend on Sea.
Focus was moved to developing the new BIRCH brand across a huge range of products and partnering up with important brands in the trade including: Vibram, Silca, Bama, TRG, Angelus, Meltonian and more recently Rit Dye and Dainite.
Following the acquisition of a 20,000 square foot warehouse in Rochford, Essex in 2000 and a 30,0000 square foot warehouse in Brown Lane West, Leeds in 2002, distribution was centralised, enabling the company to offer a modern, professional and nationwide next day delivery service.
After over thirty years in the company, David Macdonald was appointed as Managing Director in 2023 with the aim of continuing the company’s philosophy of “Continuous Improvement”. He will continue to lead the excellent Charles Birch team and embrace new technologies in order to preserve and build on the Wilson family legacy.
Chris Wilson continues as Chairman actively supporting David and the whole Charles Birch team.
