In July this year, after a year of negotiation, London gunmakers John Rigby & Co. has announced a new partnership with family owned and operated business, Traditional English Guncases (TEG London).
Headquartered in Kent, the company was established in 1987 by Ian Tomlin, father of the current managing director, Joseph Tomlin. Ian established the business using the know-how and support of his father, who he worked alongside since 1977. Wider family members also worked behind the scenes, with Ian’s mother-in-law even coming up with the name for the company. From its inception, TEG London has attracted attention from many of the world’s premier gun and rifle makers. Using only the finest quality materials, their master craftsmen take pride in producing exquisitely detailed and robust gun cases of quintessential English elegance and style.
Deciding that it was time to take a back seat with the business, Ian Tomlin felt that now was the right time to support Joseph in taking the business in a new direction. However, after being approached by other businesses, he felt that John Rigby & Co. would offer the most fitting partnership going forward.
Following the same proven business strategy at Rigby, the team intend to implement the same approach to TEG, allowing the company to continue to produce their high quality products, in greater quantities and develop more of a bespoke element to their services.
The partnership agreement will see Rigby provide additional financial backing for TEG, to support the small family business expand in the gun trade, while continuing to operate with all the same values and morals.
Discussing the new partnership with Rigby, Joseph Tomlin commented: “It gives us an opportunity to grow, more than we could as a small family business. We can achieve much more having that extra backing from such a strong company. We can take what my father has built and grown – as the best guncase maker in the country, if not world – to the next level, which carries on his legacy. For me I feel a sense of pride to be a part of the company’s growth and hopefully I can make him proud of what we can achieve.”
Marc Newton, managing director of Rigby, added: “Joseph is a first class operator and we are both very excited to be working together. TEG create such high quality products, just like we do at Rigby, and our focus now is to develop and grow the business with existing customers and those new.”