When I was a young lad of around ten I remember my Dad, Bob Forster, sitting at the kitchen table inspecting the latest batch of sealing discs for Co2 cartridges, or at least trying to while I attempted to capture as many of these shiny things as I could because they could be useful for……something…..probably.
Anyway, Dad was a real old fashioned engineer of the type who wore one of those funny coats and carried a slide rule in his pocket. Dad was also the Manager of a very large engineering firm at the time and he made these sealing discs as a part time “pocket money” job. Not to knock the sealing discs by the way, they are made to very tight tolerances with rigid quality control but in the high tech’ circles Dad came from they were “pocket money”.
When I got older I would help Dad with his bits and bobs for the fire trade after I came from work. Eventually the bits and bobs became am awful lot of bits and a frightening amount of bobs. It was time to so something so I quit my job with the alarm company I was a salesman for and we found our first proper premises, 1700 square feet in amongst the other identical 1700 square foot units in a place some of you may remember called Foundry Lane. We stuck the Cherry Engineering Company sign above the door, well actually the sign didn’t come until about a year later when we got our first visitor but I digress. Back then we were mostly making specialist components for the Pyrene’s, Nu-Swifts and other extinguisher manufactures of the world and sending them out with a local haulage firm.
As time passed and we had carved our own little niche, employee’s of the Pyrene’s and Nu-Swifts would leave and set up their own service companies and as we were known to these good people they would get onto us for spare and replacement parts. You see, as we made the original parts we knew what people were talking about, what they wanted and how the parts worked and if they wanted something we hadn’t made before then like as not they had timed their call well as we would be very shortly. Coincidences like that happened a lot in the early days, funnily enough.
Anyway, the company Dad was managing disappeared at the time when most large engineering companies were disappearing and Dad brought a lot of sub-contract work in from his old customers in the power generation fields and offshore industries. Cherry Engineering was all of a sudden doing other things as well as the core fire protection business and the two didn’t always work well together. As an example I remember one of the power stations sending us a water pump to be refurbished. The only problem was while I was standing at the front door expecting a box a lorry pulled up with a pump which was 62 feet long and fresh off the sea bed! Now you try and keep that next to your shiny and pristinely white fire blankets without any issues!
Something had to be done so decisions were made, Sunray Building was purchased as our new company home and a little over ten years ago Cherry Parts Ltd was born to supply the fire extinguisher service industry and Cherry Engineering Company could take its muck and filth elsewhere i.e to our new warehouse in Benfield Road which was also stocking overflow stock for Cherry Parts Ltd. That separation didn’t exactly work as we hoped but we figured it all out in the end.
This little tale, as well as being a nice trip down memory lane for me also serves to inform that we have been around a while and we like to think we know what we are doing. A quick glance at SAGE on the computer tells me we have well over a thousand current product lines, although I must admit that some of these are original equipment parts and some are specialist but that does leave us with knowledge of a lot parts. After all, what sort of fool would stock parts if he didn’t know what they were?
So if you need something modern like a plastic seal, which incidentally we stock in nine different colours and can personalise with your details or even a washer for a Nu-Swift panic proof extinguisher (remember them?) then we probably have it so give us a call and if we don’t have what you need then we have been around long enough to know who will, probably.
Incidentally, in case you were wondering Cherry Engineering Company is doing very well since Dad passed away and now shares the same 24,500 square foot premises as Cherry Parts Ltd.
Times move on and companies come and go but when you need quality, service and perhaps a bit of information from people who know what they are doing then experience matters and Cherry Parts Ltd/Cherry Engineering Company certainly have.
Peter Forster
Managing Director
Cherry Parts Ltd
Swales Industrial Estate
Howdon Lane
Howdon
Tyne & Wear
NE28 0AL
England
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: +44 191 236 9505
Fax: +44 191 262 3159
