Leadbitter Glass Celebrates 30 years In Business
2024 marks 30 years since the launch of Leadbitter Glass. From very humble beginnings working in a 6ft x 6ft ‘brick shed’ behind their house, Francis & Linda Leadbitter now supply Stained Glass Windows to homes all around the world. We now operate from our fully owned commercial studio in Corby Northamptonshire and we produce many different forms of decorative glass.
Back in 1994, one of our first trade customers was a company called Kingston Windows. Francis Leadbitter remembers having a conversation with the owner when he saw a poster in the showroom stating “30 years in business” Francis told the owner Barry how amazed he was that a window company had been trading since the 1960s. It seemed amazing that Barry had been trading that long. Fast forward 30 years and Francis is as proud as Barry must have been all those years ago.
1994 was the year and a lot has changed in our country and in the world of sports. Bill Clinton was US President and John Major was Prime Minister of the UK. Blackburn Rovers were Premiership champions, Michael Schumacher won his first Formula 1 World Title and somebody called Linda Leadbitter won her 2nd of 4 Embassy World Pool titles on Sky Sports 😉
The first order we received was for £65 and it enabled us to buy more glass tools. A few weeks later an order came in for over £300 and this allowed us to buy a Fax machine. When we first started out we were mainly a local trade supplier of decorative glass. Today more than 94% of the glass we make is ordered directly by homeowners around the country. In 1994 we started out offering two types of decorative glass – Leaded Glass and Bevelled Glass. Since then we have added Etched Glass and Fused Glass to our list of glass types available. We manufacture everything in-house, even the small fused glass tiles from our Tree Of Life design.
Over recent years we have received glass orders for blockbuster movies, Prime Ministers and Billionaires. As mentioned though, almost all of the orders we receive come from UK homeowners. We would like to thank all of our customers past and present for helping us achieve this great milestone and we look forward to another 30 years in business.