The Tech-Board Story (Stranger then fiction)

The true story of the most dramatic "Greenfield Startup" failure in British manufacturing history

Malcolm, had found his latest backer in the form of one Peter Learmond, a man who had made his millions through creating a company called Sheerness Steel.

Peter Learmond

Learmond, who often called himself "Commander", although we were never quite sure whether he left the "Lieutenant" part off the front by accident or on purpose, owned a converted tram-shed in Imperial Road, London

Learmond was a strange character…there’s so many stories that one could tell about the time in Imperial Road….Quite often he would shout things at the top of his voice, expecting everybody to drop what they were doing and answer him. One of his favourite’s was "WHAT’S THE TIME?". After a few months of this, Malcolm bought him a big clock, and placed it in the middle of his desk…but he would still shout "WHAT’S THE TIME?", to which Malcolm would just go into his office and point at the clock.

He would quite often shout out quite bizarre questions: "WHO’S LORD KING’S SECRETARY". By this time the new Hardboard Mill had been given the name "Tech-Board" for some while, yet one day he was heard to shout "WHO’S TECH-BOARD?"…lot’s of coughing ensued.

Ongoing Sagas

There seemed to be a lot of ongoing sagas at Imperial Road. Learmond owned an Aston Martin that was forever getting sent to a "specialist" in Wales….lots’s of irate telephone calls later, and it would arrive back on a transporter, only to be shipped back down to Wales again the following week with outstanding problems.

When it was back in London though, It was always funny watching it pull away…there would be no traffic coming for ages, then, just as a car was upon us, it would pull away…every time!

There was also the sage of the nighties. Learmond’s daughter used to work for a nightie company, then set up on her own. So we had about 6 months of bizarre phone calls to Malaysia, where her first consignment of nighties were being made, lots of excitement when they arrived, followed by weeks of angst when they found out that the company that they originally worked for were suing them for allegedly ripping off the designs.

The Mill

During this time there was lots of meetings with potential suppliers and potential backers. Every day would see a presentation to some financial institution or other, and a presentation from some manufacturer of presses of saws or process control.

These seemed to all blur into one, except when we were getting a visit from a man we christened "Arne Rhinohorn". Arne worked for a scandinavian machine manufacturer, a lovely man, but a very big man, with a bit of a BO problem. We always pondered about his evening return journey in a cramped little aircraft seat and felt sorry for the person sitting next to him. One day we were horrified to see him get out of a Nissan Micra …"Ah hello, I caught an early flight, so I thought I’d see a few sites of London before our meeting". It was one of the hottest days of the year. The car didn’t have A/C. It was a very short meeting.

The People

A few more people to mention from the Imperial Road times:

Alan the Chauffeur

Very Mad (Where are they now?)

Sandie Coward

Lovely Sandie worked as Learmond’s secretary and put up with a lot! (Where are they now?).

Brenda Fyson

Lovely Brenda worked as a secretary for TechBoard and other companies based in the Imperial Road offices. (Where are they now?)

Tony Read

For all of the time at Imperial Road, Tony Read had been "on board" as TechBoard’s Financial Director. Tony was to move to Wales and live through the first years of Tech-Board (Where are they now?).

Ted Ellis

Very, Very, Welsh, Ted appeared during the last couple of months at Imperial Road, and was appointed as Tech Board’s HR Manager. Ted was to move to Wales and live through the first years of Tech Board (Ted will appear in several later sections and Where are they now?)

Austin Slater

Austin also re-appeared during the last few months at Imperial Road, and was to move to Wales and live through the first years of Tech Board. This was despite him visiting the area where the mill was to be built, several weeks before the deal was in place, and returning to report that the area was "Like Beirut" (Where are they now?)