Our History
EST 1979
From a dining table to industry leaders
Out of necessity came the idea of Newton Commercial. Richard at the time was working for a vehicle radiator manufacturer when he was told by a client that if he couldn’t find someone to repair one of their lorry seats, he would lose the account. Unable to find a local trimmer to do the job, Richard purchased some material and Vera helped to make up a seat cover using her mother’s Singer sewing machine at home while looking after their two small children and also working as a staff nurse at Ipswich Hospital.
The Beginning
Demand steadily grew and Richard and Vera found themselves creating and repairing trim for commercial vehicles, milk floats, police cars, tractors & even A10 fighter planes. Eighteen months later they decided to take the plunge and turn a part-time enterprise into a fully-fledged business.
Quality First
We started making the products we wanted to see in the world and we did this with originality at the forefront of design and manufacturing with the aim to bring knowledge and expertise to the industry.
a true family business
In 2004, Jonny Newton official joined the business with a drive to modernise Newton Commercial but maintaining the ethos his parents built the company on. With this edge we continued to grow the quality of the original style products we pride ourselves on.
This drive is recognised by our work with the Institution for Manufacturing, which is essentially the public face of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, providing us with valuable research and insight to the latest manufacturing and management methods.
As well as Jonny working as managing director of Newton Commercial, he is also joined by his wife Katie who helps out across the board from cutting, to sewing, to helping on the senior leadershiop team. With his children helping out in school holidays too, Newton Commercial remains a proud family business.
After moving to our first factory on the Eastlands Industrial Estate in Suffolk, our main operations moved to a purpose built factory in 1990. Our original factory is now used for our moulding department and 2010 our business expanded again to include our third site on the estate for our board production. Our board team also work closely with our moulding department for the product development of our new moulded carpet ranges, creating tooling from classic car body shells.
As the years went by, we had to modernise our manufacturing methods to keep up with demand and maintain the quality of our products. This led to the investment of our Bullmer cutting machines which not only improved efficiency and consistency but also saw all of our original patterns digitised so they can continue to be used for many years to come.
We have lent our expertise to the manufacturing of moulded automotive carpets to the classic car industry for over 30 years. We have worked on expanding our range and it now includes classic Mini's, VW, Ford, Mazda and many more! Each moulded carpet has been carefully developed by our expert team so it can perfectly match the contours of your classic. Completed with original finishing touches such as welded heelmats, proving why we deserve to be British Motor Heritage approved.
our team of experts
From the very start, we would not have grown to be the company we are today without out skilled team. Some members started off over 35 years ago and have given their passion and skill to our products every day since. With others joining us in the more recent years, everyone involved brings experience and dedicates their love for what they do into your classic car interior.
