Established in 1970 Pledge Office Chairs have remained one of the UK's leading office seating manufacturers.
FOREWORD
by David Carter, Founder & Managing Director
My introduction to the seating industry was with Trueform Posture Chairs. I started on £15.00 per week, plus £3.50 a week for a car, and 1 ¼ per cent commission. Using a buyer’s guide, I quickly set to work.
A typical day would see me getting to Ipswich for 8:30 am and working my way home to Hemel Hempstead.
I would open an average of six new accounts every day. Within two months the factory could not keep up with the orders I'd sold. I was good because I was naïve – I didn’t make appointments and had no brochures. All I had was a sample chair and the confidence of youth.
Before long I became the General Manager and ran the company before my bosses split up. I decided to have a go at doing it myself. I had a business plan but, with two young children, didn't have much money. I went to the bank for a loan, but the bank manager wanted security and suggested I should put my house up. I thought that the council wouldn't like that very much. There were a lot of other offers but I turned them down, choosing to do it on my own.
I told suppliers that I had no money but I was going to make 15,000 chairs in my first year. My plan was to only deal with customers who could pay within 7-30 days, and pay suppliers back-to-back. All the suppliers said yes.
I started Pledge in May 1970 in a unit in Leighton Buzzard. Everyone warned 'Don't start now!' — it was the time of Ted Heath and all the strikes.
l sold those 15,000 chairs in the first nine months. We fabricated them all ourselves – the base, the column, the mechanism, the plate, the back bar. We did all the welding, and my wife Doreen did all the sewing.
50 years later, I am still running Pledge. We continue to be based in Leighton Buzzard, although the factory is much, much bigger now, and we also make a lot more than 15,000 chairs a year.
1970
Pledge Office Chairs was established in May 1970 by David Carter to specialise in the production of swivel adjustable office seating from a two story, 180 m2 building. Employing just ten personnel, David was the only salesman and ran the factory.
"The first order was from a company called Hoggs; they immediately sent me an order to my home for 24 chairs. More orders followed with a second from M.Margolis Ltd"
- David Carter
1976
Pledge were the first UK company to standardise the use of a locking gas seat height adjustment in swivel chairs using the Suspa gas lifts, within three years Pledge were using in excess of 10,000 gas units per month.
Expansion required another move to larger premises of 2,200 m² with a new engineering department which Included robotic welding, automated saw cutting and powder paint plant.
The workforce grew to 70 employees.
1980
Pledge partner German company Grammer and produce a range of chairs by American designer Charles Chuck Pelly.
The range of seating was developed and produced to meet modern, ergonomically perfect seating systems. Seating systems which help sitting people stay fit and are successful across many applications. Many different variants were produced across the range to accommodate different uses and environments.
1982
New revolutionary tilting chair mechanism designed by David Carter named the Levermatic. Allowing the chair seat height and back angle and height to be adjusted in a seated position by levers on the side of the chair. The mechanism was further developed to offer independent seat and back adjustment with body weight tension control, the new mechanism was called The Trimatic. Worldwide patents registered.
Exhibited at the NEC
1991
Moved to the present site in 1991. With over 14,000 m² of manufacturing area on a self-contained 9-acre site, Pledge have the ideal manufacturing facility to expand for future capacity.
160 employees
2004
Pledge produce the Supporto chair for Ercol.
The iconic System Supporto was designed by Fredrick Scott, winner of many awards in 1991 the International Federation of Architects voted the Supporto chair "the chair that most influenced modern office seating". It is one of the first office chairs to be designed to strict ergonomic principles.
2006
Pledge is tasked with producing HMS Royal Navy Warship Operations Room Chairs, tooling the steel base and adjustable chair frame. Chairs are upholstered in accordance with windowless environment fire regulations.
2007
Pledge is given the project of converting Concorde passenger seats into swivel chairs to be used by British Airways
2012
Pledge are proud to supply CISCO the seating for their hospitality suite at the London 2012 Olympics.
2015
London showroom opens in Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell