Celebrating 45 years!

We’re delighted to be celebrating 45 years in business, and to mark the occasion we have published a book which tells the story of our company’s founding and growth.

“Aldermans: a Plymouth story” tells how a young Bill Alderman came to live in Plymouth with his parents in the 1960s, and forged a life and business for himself in the city, founding Alderman Tooling in 1969.

We’re delighted to be celebrating 45 years in business in 2014 – and to mark the occasion we have published a book telling the story of our company’s founding and growth in Plymouth.

“Aldermans: a Plymouth story”, has been authored by well-known Plymouth historian and biographer Chris Robinson.  

It tells how a young Bill Alderman came to live in Plymouth with his parents in the 1960s.  Having served an apprenticeship as a precision toolmaker at the huge Tecalemit factory, Bill forged a life and business for himself in the city, founding Alderman Tooling in 1969.  Aldermans originally supplied precision machine tooling for the city’s growing manufacturing sector.  Forty-five years later the company is one of the South West’s leading precision metalwork engineers.  It combines traditional machinery with the latest CNC technology to provide an integrated metalwork design and manufacturing service.  

Along with nostalgic photographs of Plymouth, the book contains wonderful anecdotes of Plymouth life over four decades – including many from Bill’s time at Tecalemit.  

Aldermans is a family-run business – Bill’s younger daughter Karen Friendship took the reigns as Managing Director in 2008 – and the family thread runs strongly throughout the book.  It was Karen who began the project to compile the family’s story two years ago.   

“The book was originally intended as a surprise for Bill’s 70th birthday, and as a private record for our family,” Karen explained.  

“However, we soon realised we couldn’t write the story properly without involving Bill!  Doing so helped enrich the story, and before we knew it our family record had become a 48 page book!”  

The family also took the decision to share their story more widely.

“We recognise that our business would not be here today without the many customers, suppliers and people of Plymouth who have contributed along the way – it’s their story as much as ours. 

“We hope people enjoy it; we’re sure its themes will resonate with many other Plymouth families!”

Read the book here (on the Issuu publication website)