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National Seals & Gaskets was formed after Law Polyco became part of the Eclectic Group of companies. The National Rubber Company Ltd was housed on the same site, and was one of the first UK stockists of Industrial rubber sheeting products from Ibercaucho, Spain (now Trelleborg). National Rubber built up a well-known reputation in the UK, expecially for products such as Viton sheeting, which Ibercaucho supplied following the agreement to distribute in the UK. Nearby, at Bury St Edmunds, Nationwide Insulations became Nationals main associate company. National Seals & Gaskets thrived mostly as a trade supplier of gaskets and seals - with low cost sheeting supplied through National Rubber, they were able to offer highly competitive prices on their product to the trade. There was however a healthy mix of end users and OEM's in their customer base, many of whom still survive today in the UK - and in many cases - still use the same parts that were supplied back in the early 1990's! When the company went into receivership in 1992, many ex-employees moved to competitors and the customer base was split with many left in limbo. With no constraints on the information that had been made available from the company, several customers were absorbed by other convertors, however the original accounts were available from the ex-owners and from this a complete new database of customers and products was created. An extended database was formed using data from other companies that had been part of the original group, such as Forest Rubber of Bishops Stortford, Parkins of Leicester, Tricut Rubber and Plastics of Welwyn Garden, Westbank Rubber of Barking and Davies Industrial of Halstead (now trading under it's own right at DIS). This information was then used to capture as many customers as possible after National went into receivership. Production changed over the years and products such as mouldings were farmed out when production stopped at Sudbury. Many of these rubber parts are now defunct - however we are normally able to locate the original mould tools and put you in touch with the suppliers. In the case of gasket tools - these are relatively inexpensive and can easily be replicated - often at no cost to the user. Many of the old customers from back in the 1990's are still active - Paxman Diesels (now Man B & W), Suffolk Lawn Mowers (now Qualcast), Mirrlees (now Man B & W), Lotus Cars, Aston Martin Lagonda, Hepworths, ABB, Briggs & Stratton, Osma, Marconi (now Alenia Marconi), Merlin Gerin (now Group Schneider), E F Youldon, Icore - in fact from a 1992 customer list extending to some 6500 old clients - we estimate that over 80% of the OEM's and end-users are still using gaskets and seals! With such a diversified base to work to the potential of these customers today is still very substantial. By using the power of modern day technology in the internet we're actively extending our contacts on a daily basis - and look forward to talking to you soon! |