Pride in the job from a skilled workforce

Having started life in 1973 in a previous incarnation  as a panel bonding and worktop manufacturer, the past 40 years have seen Dorset-headquartered Total Laminate Systems (TLS) grow and develop into one of the UK’s leading manufacturers, suppliers, and installers, of sanitary assemblies, IPS panels, and washroom systems to the healthcare, education, commercial, and leisure sectors. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the company’s Wimborne base to find out more about this interesting evolution, and discover why TLS believes a number of its products are unique in its market.

On arriving at Total Laminate Systems’ headquarters on the outskirts of Wimborne I was warmly welcomed by Kevin Lloyd and his wife, Jakki, the business’s joint owners. Kevin Lloyd explained that when the pair bought the business 10 years ago, Jakki had been the company’s managing director for the previous 10 years. “Prior to that,” he explained, “the business was owned by two brothers, Christopher and Robin Haycock, who had established a large builder’s merchant on this estate. Many years ago they used to supply boards to a small husband and wife-owned worktop manufacturer called Trendy Bond on the estate. Subsequently, the brothers sold the builder’s merchant’s business to Travis Perkins, and offered Jakki, who was their credit controller, the option of running Trendy Bond (which they had by then acquired), with a new factory to operate from – which was built here in 1998, and in which we now sit. The business then became Total Laminate Systems. Jakki had worked for the Haycocks for 35 years, and when, in 2008, the brothers decided to sell TLS, we jumped at the opportunity to buy it.” 

Two sites afford flexibility