About Us

Who are Gledhill Building Products

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The Gledhill company was founded by my father Norman Gledhill and made copper cylinders from the 1920s until it was sold to Delta Metal in the late 1960s.

The company as it is known today was started by my brother Keith Gledhill and me in the early 1970’s. Initially we made copper cylinder 'specials' on a rapid delivery basis in humble surroundings in Blackpool where the office furniture really did consist of a Tea chest! We have since expanded the company to be the largest privately owned cylinder manufacturer in the UK with 9 Gledhill family members working in the business alongside over 200 staff employed nationwide. Please see our short History and Industry Innovations sections for some of the background to the company.

We have family members in many levels of the organisation, from me as Chairman through to my grandson James who works on the shop floor at our Blackburn factory making copper cylinders. We also have a full complement of professional managers who are independent of the family and that includes our Chief Executive, Mark Foster. Our aim is to achieve the rigour of professional management within the values and long term vision of a family company.

Very importantly we have three family members, Anne-Marie, Chris and Paul Gledhill in the company's Regional Sales Manager team who travel daily to be in personal contact with our customers. This means we have a direct contact from our customers through to the highest decision making point in the company. I feel this gives us a unique edge in the market place where keeping in touch with the changing requirements of our customers is key. Our Transport Manager, Ian Gledhill, has a remit is to ensure that we maintain our reputation for outstanding performance on deliveries and customer service.

I am pleased to say that our Managing Director, who is my eldest daughter Patricia, Finance Director, Carol, and Operations Director, Lynne, are a welcome female addition to our senior management team in what has traditionally been a male dominated industry.

Please see the Gledhill People section if you would like to find out more about our management team.

Key to achieiving our aims are the 200+ staff members that we employ, many of whom have worked for the company for decades, in some cases starting straight from school until retirement age. Whilst that may sound out of date in today's world, I believe that staff loyalty and continuity is key to providing a consistent service and building a breadth of specialist expertise within the company.

If you are interested in joining our team please see the Jobs at Gledhill section as we are always looking to expand and regularly have positions that need to be filled with high calibre people.

What we do

We major on vented cylinders traditionally in copper and more recently in stainless steel as this is still the largest part of the UK cylinder market. However, with the growth in mains pressure unvented hot water cylinders we have also added a very successful stainless steel product portfolio under the Stainless Lite brand which has taken the market by storm over the last few years.

Rapid delivery and personalised customer service is very much part of what has made us successful and this focus on the customer continues to drive everything that we do.

The merchant trade is our customer base and by having a nationwide network of Super-Depot manufacturing units from Paington to Inverkeithing, this allows us to respond very quickly to customer demands and provide a personalised local service where the person you deal with is motivated and empowered to make things happen for the customer. We provide next day delivery on standard cylinders and are also well known for manufacturing ‘specials’ in copper whereby we can quickly make any type of cylinder in special sizes or with additional tappings.

Innovation is a key ingredient of our success and we can now offer a very wide range of products in both copper and stainless steel, from standard cylinders through to a full range of alternative energy products. We are always willing to look for new materials and processes that are appropriate for the application, the most recent example being the Envirofoam Stainless Vented, the first vented stainless steel cylinder aimed at the volume replacement market.

Building for the future

As a privately owned company we are in business for the long term and there is an understanding that we will have good and bad times but that it is necessary to continue to invest to keep the company moving forward.

Our ambition is to be recognised as the ‘UK cylinder specialist and first choice supplier to the merchant trade’

Speaking on behalf of the family, management, and all our staff I sincerely hope that we can meet that commitment to you in all that it means. If you have any feedback either good or bad then please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..