Former Eastbourne industrialist returns after 30 years

Davies and Tate opened it's first showroom at 3 Terminus Road, Eastbourne in 1976 and went on to open another 13 in the south east including three distribution depots and a 10,000 sq ft HQ in Commercial Road, which had been opened by the late Ian Gow MP in 1983, prior to his murder by the IRA. We enjoyed great support from the local press and community and the business grew to a turnover of £7 million by 1989.

The problem however, from an Eastbourne point of view, was that it took ages to get out of the town this being prior to the by pass being built and road communications generally. In 1990/1 it was decided to move our HQ operation to Uckfield and consolidate the retail operation in what was to become a recessionary period in the early 90's. This caused a lot of fuss at the time and was seen as yet another successful semi national brand abandoning Eastbourne for all of the then usual reasons.

Davies and Tate founded a subsidiary company in 1996, Window Fitters Mate Ltd, which specialised in supplying window and door products through trade counters to independent window installers and builders and by the time it was sold in 2006 went on to have multiple branches in the midlands and the south of England and south Wales with a turnover in excess of £20 million.

Phil Davies promised himself that he would never do it again, but in 2019 a former top employee got in touch seeking support to open a trade counter in Swindon, where he lived and had managed a very successful branch in the day. Even though it opened at the beginning of the pandemic it became very successful. In the meantime Phil's son Andrew, who had been working in London wondered why more branches were not on the agenda, and joined in 2022 with the sole ambition to scale the business, just like the old days.

So 47 years after opening his first shop as a 24 year old in Eastbourne, Phil finds himself opening in Eastbourne again at 70!! Trade Counter Mate can be found at 68 Hammonds Drive, off of Lottbridge Drove. there are a further two branches in Sussex in Crawley and Shoreham.