How haven for art is made with widgets

Apr 20 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Zack had his mother to rely on and “one or two technical people” as he describes them, but he adds: “I knew how to trade and I knew how to sell.”

For a while the company diversified into toys and, at one point during the 1980s, it was the UK’s biggest manufacturer of striped hula hoops as the 1960s toy got a makeover as an exercise tool during that decade’s aerobics boom. And he proudly recalls how on a visit to one toy trade fair his father pointed out the Russian toy company his grandfather had helped create.

But now Tyne Moulds’ business is 99.9% horticultural supplies with a product range of 150-plus “small plastic widgets”. It makes around 50m items every year.

These lines go straight to wholesalers for resale to growers with 50% of its output being sold overseas to the United States and Europe in particular. Zack says: “We are unique in the sense that we make niche products and sometimes even bespoke products.

“We have faced competition over the years and still do. The Far East manufacturers have a go at making some of the volume lines but we provide customers with a full range of products, not just the fast-selling lines.

“Sometimes it can be a David and Goliath battle. There is always a new king on the block and there are always new kids on the block but so far we have seen off the threats.”

Zack’s purchase of a former biscuit factory in 1984 was one of his first independent business moves and was born out of a passion for architecture and style.

His office contains reproduction period wooden furniture while visitors are made to feel at home in roomy leather chairs and in the corner is a bust of Hadrian standing on a marble plinth.

“I should have been an architect,” grins Zack. “But I got the chance to buy that lovely building and it seemed like a good investment.”

What emerged from the investment, 18 years later, is the most ambitiously privately-funded arts project the region has seen.

The Biscuit Factory on Stoddart Street is home to 30 artists’ studios and an art gallery and the Brasserie Black Door restaurant. It is believed to be Europe’s largest commercial art gallery.

Zack said: “The building had been let to various tenants under my ownership, but when a tenant left the top two floors I thought about what to do with it. Then I had a chance conversation about the lack of space for artists and an idea began to germinate.

“Initially I would say the driving force was to renovate this beautiful building, with the artistic element coming in at a later stage. But as the idea developed I began to feel there was a commercial core to it. People kept telling me there was a demand for art in the region and I saw the opportunity to provide that supply.

“It is my biggest extravagance. I just ran away with myself. I had originally though it would cost £200,000 but it ended up costing something like £1m. The Biscuit Factory was a hobby but it soon became a serious business. It is now the most successful arts project Newcastle has had.”

Now Zack is on the march with a vision to create a cultural colony in this corner of Newcastle by developing two new artists’ spaces to be known as the Biscuit Tin and the Business Box respectively.

In premises on Warwick Street adjoining Tyne Moulds Zack is in the process of creating space for a further 41 artists, with 14 of these now pre-let and one artist already in residence. This is likely to be called the Biscuit Tin and is costing £100,000 to develop.

Zack is still hopeful of securing permission from Newcastle City Council to create space for a further 50 artists in a second building on Stoddart Street, which looks set to be known as the Biscuit Box.

He says: “My vision for the arts in Newcastle is to create a colony of artists in the Shieldfield area. There is a pent-up demand for artists’ studios and if all of these developments come off we will have studios for 120 artists.

“There is a critical mass and we can create a colony of artists the like of which does not exist anywhere else in the UK.

“For me it’s not about making money. Let’s face it, there are only so many fillet steaks you can eat! We are comfortable and I like to use some of what I have to help others.

“Many of the publicly-funded arts bodies haven’t got a clue about the commercial aspects of arts ventures. What we are trying to do is create something that can contribute to the economy by using a modicum of business and common sense.”

The development of the Biscuit Factory in 2002 was completed with his wife Marilyn although Zack is unsure if his son Simeon will follow him in to the business as he wants to be an actor. But then he is still only 13. Daughter Emmelene, 18, is off to university later this year.

Zack’s devotion to, and respect for, the values he has been given from his family is still evident today.

He talks of how when he took over the running of the business in 1984 and always had his mother Lili to rely on. “As in a lot of Jewish family businesses, she did a little bit of everything,” says Zack.

He smiles proudly as Lili arrives – as if on cue – with his packed lunch.