Celebrate 50 Years of Normans with our weekly 50% Deals!
28.09.09 – 04.10.09
Stagg TIM J 5/16 RD Junior 5 Piece 16in Drum Kit in Red
“My new ‘Stagg SW203CETU-BK Electro Acoustic Dreadnought Guitar With Integrated Tuner‘, and how I used it together with ‘Audacity’ V1.2.6 free audio editor software, to create the original soundtrack for this video on my computer.
A sense of accomplishment when done, but oh boy, how VERY time consuming this all was! 
)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpV9wBxHT_4
European Sales Manger sampling the San Francisco branch of Normans
Besson BE1020 1000 Series Bb Cornet (Silver)
Normans opens for business on the 17th September 1959, owned jointly by Norman Willey and Joe Fearn at 3 New Street, Burton.
Below: Normans Advert on Opening – from the Burton Mail 17/09/59
Normans incorporated as a limited company 8th November. Turnover remains at a steady £8,000 per year.
Pam and David Haines buy 1/3 of the shares of Normans for £750.00 (July 27th)
Normans supplies the 1st of many large education orders – 1,000 violins sold to Derbyshire County Council for £2.50 each. As the shop was so small the violins were stored prior to delivery in Pam and David’s 3rd floor flat! Soon Normans start selling to Music Services further afield. Burton Music Adviser Derek Parkin- Marshall moves to Newcastle and becomes a regular customer and Eric Jones (a Royal College of Music student at the same time as David Haines) is appointed Music Adviser to Montgomeryshire – and became the largest purchaser of Musical Instruments in the U.K (via Normans)! From these small beginnings word started to spread and new education customers started to place orders. Normans started to develop a good reputation as a specialist niche business supplying County Council Music Services from a central UK base – a new concept for the UK at the time.
Normans moves to Bridge Street, Burton. Current MD Gareth Haines is Born.
In November Normans have the 1st of several “Sunday Sales” – offering huge discounts In the early seventies offering any discounts to customers was frowned upon by the Musical Instrument trade and Sunday trading was illegal! People travelled from all over the country and we sold £2,000 of instruments in four hours!!
(Below: David & Pam Haines, Boosey & Hawkes sales representatives, and Pauleen & Norman Willey at the Boosey and Hawkes Sales conference 1971)
Normans buys 1 Lichfield St and 1 and 2 New St Burton from Boots the Chemists for £12,500. One unit, no 2 New St was sold for £4,000.00 to buy out Joe Fern. The “Second Sunday Sale” takes place in The Leofric Hotel Coventry, featuring recitals by Dennis Wick and John Wilbraham, we again take £2000.00. Our reputation is now starting to spread far and wide – making us increasingly popular with musicians and unpopular with traditional music shops!
(Below: New Street property)
David and Pam leave their jobs to join Normans full time (David having previously been the Band Master at Repton School). Blessing Instruments are imported for the first time from America by Normans. At the time there was very little choice of student Brass instruments available in the UK – and then it was not the best quality. At the time the market leading instruments were Boosey and Hawkes Regents – which came in cardboard cases! Blessing Cornets, Trumpets and Trombones were better instruments and came in moulded ABS cases (a first at the time) and had a retail price of under £100- Blessing Instruments immediately became very popular amongst the education fraternity and large quantities start to be used in schools across the country.
(Below: Gareth Haines – aged 3)
A Large Sea Container of Blessing Instruments is now being delivered to Burton every month and Thousands of instruments are being purchased by Schools and Music Services.
The Lucky break! With large amounts of purchases now being made in Dollars, David Haines decides to buy a “forward dollar contract” for an entire year’s purchases. The exchange rate in the contract was $2.40 to £1.00. By the time the contract matured the value of Sterling had fallen against the Dollar to $1.05 to £1.00 – Making an extraordinary amount of money for Normans, setting up the company financially for many years to come. This was probably the luckiest move in the History of Normans!
(Below: David Haines and The Joe Loss Orchestra test Blessing Instruments -1979)
Norman and Pauline Willey are bought out by David and Pam Haines
During the ‘80’s Normans continually expanded – and opened up a succession of regional branches in Cardiff, Huddersfield and Falkirk.
Below: New Street Admin Team- Helen (left) Doreen (centre) -1980
Below: Sales Team (L to R) Andy D, Helen B, David H, Rob A – 1980
Normans outgrows its central Burton “shop” and moves to Unit 1 Moor Street – a purpose built 6,000 square foot warehouse, shop and office complex.
Below: Moor St 1989
During the early to mid ‘90’s the branch network continued to expand with Crewe, Winchester and Darlington Branches. The late ‘90’s saw a huge wave of Brass Band Lottery grants. Normans supply on average a complete new “Band –Set” of instruments per week for three years! By the end of the 20th century it was clear that the world was changing and the way we had run our business over the past two decades was not going to be appropriate moving forward. Specifically, improved nationwide next day couriers and the fledgling internet meant that a network of regional stores was quickly becoming an outmoded method of doing business. We therefore took the decision to systematically centralise our business and dismantle our branch network. In retrospect, this tough decision and difficult period of re-organisation has been the springboard for a decade of continued growth and success. During the ‘90’s the current management team of Gareth Haines (MD), Gary Bond (Sales), Andy Mckeown (Operations) and David Ball (Non-exec) join Normans. With the emergence of Taiwan and China as major hubs for manufacturing Musical Instruments we start to buy large quantities of instruments from the Far East and Blessing instruments are slowly phased out.
Below: Moor St Party: Inc Gill Monks, Joe Leyden, Tony Thomas, Carol, Dawn, Sarah, Julie, Jenny, Jen, Lesley, Sue, Helen – 1993
Below: Royal Albert Hall trade Stand 1996
(L to R) Andy Devereux, Jeff Sparks, Andy Mckeown, Alastair Hanson, Gareth Haines, Richard Hanson
Below: Liz, Sue, Helen – Normans Accounts 1996
Below: Pam Haines – 1996
Below: Celebrating Pam & David Haines’s 30 years at Normans -1997
First Education Catalogue published – Normans are now the UK’s established leading Education Supplier and this catalogue (sent out to over 40,000 schools and teachers) cements our position as market leaders.
Below: Normans Accounts (L to R) Jen, Viv, Liz and Doreen
Below: Normans Sales (L to R) Paul McDonald, Gary Bond, Andy Mayall, Andy Mckeown, Sadie.
Normans moves to Third Avenue, Centrum 100, Burton. A large warehouse with attached offices, store area and repair workshops.
Below: Centrum 100 Property
www.normans.co.uk launched for e-commerce. Within a matter of months, International Sales expand rapidly.
Below: Jen, Ros, Manuel, Liz, Gareth, Viv, Gary, Jonty, Natalie, Jen, Andy, James.
Below: Gary Bond, Gareth Haines, Jonty Hines, Liz Herbert, James Platt
Pam & David Haines retire.
Normans Doubles the size of its Third Avenue Property to 16,000 square feet of double height warehousing. We now sell the equivalent of our 1968 annual turnover every 100 minutes!
The Normans Sales Team go White Water Rafting
Sunday 30th August 2009 @ The NWSC
![Sales Team [White Water Rafting] 15](http://normansblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/75k1219.jpg?w=150&h=100 "_75K1219")
Luckily they all made it home in one piece (just about!!)
Solihull Music Service “Where every child’s music matters”… is committed to working in partnership with schools and pupils to assist them in all forms of music making. It also enriches the lives of pupils and the community through the provision of a wide range of music making opportunities.
Solihull Music Service Open Evenings wil take place on Wednesday 9th (strings & guitars) and Thursday 10th September (wind/brass/percussion & keyboards) at the solihull Music Service.
Members of the Normans Sales Team will be attending both evenings at: Solihull Music Service
Lyndon School
Daylesford Road
Solihull B92 8EJ (0121) 743 2483
with a selection of musical instruments at hand.
We look forward to meeting you!
Celebrate 50 Years of Normans with our 50% Off Deals!
This weeks deal 07.09.09 – 13.09.09
Stagg KXS-A5 Height Adjustable Keyboard Stand
Was £26.68
Now £13.34
Saving 50%
For one week Only + While Stocks Last
X Style Keyboard Stand from Stagg (Self Assembly)
Brilliant for use with most standard sized/weight Keyboards!
Celebrate 50 Years of Normans with our 50% Off Weekly Deals….
and this weeks deal is.. Stagg CWM-N-D 10in & 11in Natural Congas
http://www.normans.co.uk/p-1380-stagg-cwm-n-d-10in-11in-natural-congas.aspx
For One Week Only!
While Stocks Last!
