The Family Business

K. G. Corfield Ltd was in every sense a family business. Sir Kenneth, Betty, and brother John were soon joined by their other brother Stan, who looked after production. They were also joined by their father, Mr. Stanley Corfield, who came out of retirement to become the credit controller. They looked after their employees extremely well; everyone was treated as an individual. This led to a well-motivated and enthusiastic team, many of whom felt like family members. They were given every opportunity and assistance to improve their skills, as skilled labour was always in short supply. 

In 1954 the Maharajah of Mysore placed a large order for Periflex cameras. This was featured in the October 22nd edition of the Wolverhampton Chronicle under the heading "Corfield Bulletin". A whole page was devoted to the history of the company, and several of the employees were interviewed. 

Hans Lehmann, who by now had joined the company, was in charge of the camera assembly room, and told how he had not thought that he would be able to get back into the trade after the war. He had originally learned how to make optical instruments such as rangefinders, but the war intervened. During the war he was a Luftwaffe pilot and then a prisoner of war in the United States. He had since worked on a farm and been a machine operator.

Mr. John Roberts did all of the company's advertising, designing and printing. He had been a pupil at the Wolverhampton Art College where he excelled in commercial design. His full page adverts appeared fortnightly in the Amateur Photographer. He described the design process as follows: "Basic thing is to get down, even roughly, the important article for the leaflet. The design, the ornamentation will come afterwards".

Walsall born Gerald Whitton was the company's toolmaker. Like Sir Kenneth he used to work for Fischer Bearings. He founded the machine shop and developed all of the company's machine tools. He described how it was vital to have the correct tools for each of the 175 parts in the camera.

The firm's two original employees were also interviewed. Mrs. Florence Abbiss who was the firm's packer described how she daily sent parcels of cameras off to Hong Kong. She was responsible for all of the parcels, packages and crates that left Corfields for the home market and abroad. Mr. Reg Simmons, a skilled mechanic, was in charge of production in the assembly shop. He described his job as seeing that the girls correctly assembled the various components, and how he personally carried out any repairs to equipment that was returned from dealers. 

Sir Kenneth mentioned that his wish was to make photography more universal and help this country become what is known as a photographic nation, like Germany or the United States. He wanted his camera to be used by amateurs as well as professionals and would like to make the business grow. He summed up his hopes as follows: "At its present rate of growth we should become one of the leading firms in the country during the next ten years. Demand for our products is terrific. We have a staff who believe and share our enthusiasm in the future of the firm".

This advert from 1956 shows the variety of goods that Corfields sold. Only the Periflex camera at the top is their own product. They were distributors for a range of photographic equipment including Exacta Cameras, Stag timers, "Shirley Wellard" re-loadable 35mm film cassettes, Perilux enlargers and Omnica carrying cases.

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