Julian Atkinson, Managing Director, JC Atkinson

Jul 12 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal

They say there's nothing more certain than death and taxes and so one of the country's most successful coffin-makers should be confident his business is recession-proof. Christopher Knox meets Julian Atkinson.

THERE have been many victims of the economic downturn, but it’s fair to assume that a coffin-maker might be one of those businesses that escapes untarnished.

Although the last century has seen a steady increase in life expectancy, it is safe to say that JC Atkinson in Washington should be able to rely on a steady stream of business.

As a man who makes his living out of death, it is not surprising Julian Atkinson is rather pragmatic about his own day of deliverance and, sure enough, has already chosen his own coffin. A plain oak coffin with no handles, if you want to know.

He is decidedly down to earth about the end of life and frankly believes there is no afterlife, saying: “Everyone should live life to the fullest while they have the chance.”

He has grown the family business to employ nearly 100 people and developed a national client base and a national reputation for its environmentally-friendly credentials and its unusual designs, which include football colours and even a woollen coffin.

The firm is also famed for making coffins for a host of television shows over the years, including EastEnders – which Atkinson says has provided an increasing amount of business over the years as the body count has racked up on Albert Square.

He says: “It’s quite strange seeing one of your coffins on TV. We have done EastEnders, The Bill and Taggart among others. In terms of characters we would have supplied coffins for Pauline Fowler and Archie Mitchell, to name just two.”

The business wasn’t always high profile. It was set up in 1956 by its current owner’s grandfather John Clifford Atkinson in Penshaw, Sunderland, after he was bypassed for promotion while working at a joinery firm.

Atkinson says: “My grandfather worked at a company that made joinery products and coffin sets and was quite happy until he was bypassed for promotion, which really annoyed him and led him to go it alone. He just found his niche selling coffins.”

He would later be joined by his son, Atkinson’s father Alan in the late 1960s when he was discharged from the forces after contracting TB.

“It’s safe to say that my dad was a reluctant hostage to the coffin-making business and hadn’t really planned to join the family firm before picking up his illness,” he says.

“However, he soon took to it and was instrumental in moving the business into ready-made coffins, rather than just concentrating on selling coffin sets to the Co-op.”

Atkinson’s role in the business started early when he joined the firm at its former factory site in Penshaw as a labourer. “Because I had worked in the factory during the school holidays, I had other ideas of what I wanted to do but, as I didn’t really want to go to university, it was an easy option for me at the time,” he confesses.

“Even now I can’t say I’m interested in making coffins, more that I am interested in the marketplace and the changes it has undergone over the years.”

Wanting to find his own feet in business, he left the family firm to set up his own company, Automated Alarms and Lighting Systems, after studying an electronic installations course in North Shields.

There was a lot of crime in the North East during the late 1980s, so it seemed like home security was going to be the next growth industry, and it was.

“As well as buying and selling the systems, I would also fit them on to people’s housing,” he recounts. “It was during a time when not many people had automatic lighting in their drives and at the front of their house, so they were like, ‘Wow’ and their faces used to light up when they saw it switch on. It was quite funny, thinking back.”

This early venture also taught him a few vital lessons about what it takes to run a successful business, lessons that he was able to act upon when he returned to the family company in 1991.

He says: “Working alongside all these different companies as part of my work in security, you were able to go under the radar and get the measure of how a business should be run.

“It gave me a good grounding for when I returned to the family business. Knowing what I know now, I’m not surprised that so many businesses went under during the recession.”

After selling on the home security firm to a colleague, he returned to the coffin business and acted as a sales representative in London, which helped JC Atkinson increase its UK-wide sales.

He also went about initiating a new era of computerisation at the firm, which saw it put away the carbon- copied invoices and get up to speed with a range of business software.

One of his biggest masterstrokes was the establishment of the company’s website after purchasing the domain name of www.coffins.co.uk  some years earlier.

He recalls: “I bought the domain name during the 1990s when the internet was really taking off. It just seemed so obvious and something that would stand the business in good stead in the future.

“I also created the first brochure in the company’s history. These seem like obvious changes now, but they were new for the business at the time.”

Following the retirement of his father as managing director, he came back to Sunderland to assume the role and began rebuilding the now ageing site at Penshaw before he was approached with a better offer.

He explains: “We were two-thirds of the way through the refurbishments at Penshaw when I was approached by Bellway for them to buy the land for housing. So I took the rather large cheque from Mr Bellway and looked elsewhere.”

The £5.5m turnover business has now resided in Washington for the past six years and has a workforce of 95, which has grown from 10 since the day he took over. Key to its success has been its ability to cater for the unique needs of each customer, which has seen it supply everything from gold-plated coffins to cardboard ones.

It also makes coffins with images printed on them, with favourite views being one of the most popular options, as well as football club badges and flags.

“We get requests for all sorts of images, which can be challenging at times,” Atkinson says. “Views include both urban and rural, with the view along the River Thames a particular favourite down South.

“The football market really opened up for us three years ago with the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool.

Before then football clubs were a bit hesitant about their image being portrayed on coffins, but the Everton coffin that Rhys had, and which was seen in almost every newspaper at the time, made them see sense.

“Football clubs can’t do enough to help us now and we do quite a lot of Newcastle United and Sunderland coffins for our North East customers as a result.”

Another novel approach that Atkinson has brought to the business has been to increase its eco-friendly credentials to such a level that the business has garnered national awards.

Initiatives have included the installation of biomass heaters as well as the planting of 800 sweet chestnut saplings at his home farm in Morpeth, which he plans to use as a sustainable source of fuel when they mature in five years’ time.

He has also earmarked other locations throughout the UK in which to plant as his own land becomes full. “I didn’t like the idea of using wood from an unproven source or possibly illegal lumber from the African rainforest, so took the decision some years ago to get Forest Stewardship Council approval so our customers can be assured of our commitment to the environment.”

The firm has also given a new meaning to the term dyed-in-the-wool after launching a woollen coffin, which is derived from sheep in North Yorkshire and made by a mill in Leeds. The idea of a woollen coffin may seem unconventional, but they have become popular over recent years.

Atkinson says: “I got a phone call from the mill which said it was looking to expand its operations by making a wool coffin.

“I must admit that I was sceptical at first and just asked them to send me an email.

“They then visited the factory after sending me a well-written letter and showed us this crude but very interesting prototype.

“It is now one of our most popular alternative coffins and appeals to many of our rural customers, particularly among those in the farming community.

“It also adds to our environmental credentials as it uses wool that may otherwise have been wasted as a result of the falling popularity of the material, which I know all about as a farmer of sheep myself.”

So is a coffin-maker recession proof? Well, apart from the increasing cost in materials, it seems economic conditions have not been too unkind to Mr Atkinson.

He says: “I would say we have been business as usual, with the only main difference being that recruitment has been easier. The death rate is always an issue and we have made up for longer lifespans by increasing sales in more areas of the country.

“We did get things wrong during the bird flu pandemic scare, when the Government forecasted the deaths of around 60,000.

“We made a fair few unnecessary coffins during the time, I remember.”

In terms of his choice for his own coffin, it falls down to practicalities rather than being a reflection of his own personality.

He says: “The only reason I want an oak coffin is that I don’t want the worms getting at me.”