Coloroll is a British wallpaper brand owned by CWV Ltd.
Developed from a family-owned wallpaper company founded in the 1970s, during the 1980s Coloroll Group became a dominant publicly listed home furnishings business, which collapsed in 1990 through excessive debt. Of the ten residual brands that survived the collapse, nine of the businesses survive presently.
Foundation
The company was founded in 1970 by the Gatward family, as a printed paper bag manufacturer. After hiring marketing manager John Bray, he developed a strategy to move into wallpaper manufacture. Hiring designers John Wilman and Linda Beard, they developed a range similar to the classic fashion look developed by Welsh entrepreneur Laura Ashley. To develop new overseas markets, Bray hired John Ashcroft from competitor Crown Wallpaper as export manager.
Coloroll Group
Appointed managing director in 1981, Ashcroft bought the Gatwards and Bray out of the business in 1984.
Ashcroft's strategy was to extend the Wilman/Beard designs across a range of home furnishings, to provide a co-ordinated whole home look to the consumer. After floating the business in 1985 – leading shareholders included the pension funds of Scottish Amicable and British Coal – the company spent £420 million in the next five years on acquisitions, of which £16 million was spent in the United States, taking the strategic vision into a reality.
The brands they bought included:
External links
References
- Coloroll Ceramics Stoke Museums, retrieved 11 April 2011^
- Coloroll Ceramics Group Thepotteries.org, retrieved 11 April 2011^
- See Prior, Katherine (2012). In Good Hands: 250 Years of Craftsmanship at Swaine Adeney Brigg. Cambridge: John Adamson. ISBN 978-1-898565-09-3, p. 133.^