That venerable firm of Victorian sanitary engineers, Thomas Crapper & Co, which was enthusiastically rescued from oblivion by Simon Kirby and Warrick Knott in the late 1990s and turned once again into a manufacturer of period sanitaryware of the highest quality, was sold last week to Yorkshire-based bathroom manufacturer Hartford Holdings.

Simon Kirby, former managing director of Thomas Crapper, released the following statement on Monday:
We are very proud of having saved Thomas Crapper & Co. from obscurity and for re-creating our small range of Victorian-style sanitaryware. Particularly we have enjoyed dealing with the heritage aspects of this 155-year-old company.
 
However after 18 years we truly believe that the time has come for others with greater resources to take the firm to the next level. We are sure Adam and David of Hartford Holdings, together with Paul, the new managing director of Thomas Crapper & Co., are the very men to achieve that aim and we wish them the very best.
 
We shall remain with the company for the foreseeable future to ensure a smooth transition and to reassure customers and suppliers; after that Simon plans to return to his old interests, namely architectural antiques, old houses, old vehicles and vintage bathroom fittings, whereas Warrick will work with the owners on new product development after which he is intending to relocate to the sun, running a Mediterranean holiday letting business.
Thomas Crapper, a compact small business turning over less than £1m annually, had reached the physical limits of expansion in the bucolic grove of Victorian stable buildings at Alscot Park, and having, spent years overcoming the technical challenges of reproducing Crapper's range, had for a while felt that the business would be better off in the hands of an established larger bathroom company.

Prior to the Crapper era, Simon Kirby owned the antique sanitaryware retail and restoration business, Alscot Bathroom Company, which he sold to, and is still owned by, Norman Cockroft.
 
"I have the most enormous pile of old sanitaryware, taps, fittings and so on to dispose of," Simon Kirby told SalvoNEWS, "so that will keep me busy for a good while. I have kept my personal collection of loos, basins, taps and baths, as well as a small library of original trade catalogues and hundreds of salesman's samples; I have not decided what to do with those yet."
 
So, as they say, watch this space …
 
[Thomas Crapper & Co and Alscot Bathroom Company are Salvo Code members.