Tullis
The name Tullis has an interesting history in our company. A fascinating if tenuous link between two separate Tullis families both involved in the laundry industry and our own Lead Laundry and Catering (Pty) Ltd as we know it today.
In 1961 he sold 80% of his business to Baker Perkins (another laundry company who in 1930 had become the first company worldwide to introduce an automatic control to govern the time of wash and rinse cycles).
Baker Perkins were successful in South Africa and became Speed Queen® agents here in the mid 80’s, and their demise led directly to the establishment of LEAD (Laundry Equipment Associated Distributors) by Kim Brant in 1986. Kim owned numerous laundromats equipped with Speed Queen® and was concerned the supply of spare parts for his equipment would dry up, so he secured the Speed Queen® agency and established LEAD.
From its origins in a small office in Gale Street Durban, the company grew to its present form occupying 10 branches scattered around Southern Africa and establishing itself as the undisputed leader in the commercial/industrial laundry market in Sub-Saharan Africa.
LEAD purchased its largest competitor (Tullis Laundry and Engineering Supplies) in 1997. This company had been founded by another Tullis family (Douglas Tullis being the founder and Peter Tullis his son succeeding him).
At the time Tullis as a brand had become a laundry ‘institution’ in South Africa manufacturing very reliable and sturdy tumble driers in two manufacturing plants based in the Western Cape. These tumble driers were supplied extensively to provincial government laundries around South Africa. Many of these machines are still in operation in laundries around South Africa today (nearly 40 years later).
Eventually the local economies of scale could not sustain the manufacture of industrial tumble driers in SA, and cheaper international competition had begun to have an impact on the company – it was then that LEAD acquired the assets of Tullis Laundry and Engineering Supplies (Pty) Ltd, and with them the well known and popular Tullis brand of laundry equipment.
Today the Tullis brand of laundry equipment is more widely known and used in South Africa than it was perhaps even in its heyday. Today LEAD, which morphed into Lead Laundry and Catering (Pty) Ltd, very carefully selects various world leading manufacturers in various sectors of the commercial laundry business worldwide, to manufacture and brand their equipment with the Tullis name for the Southern African market.
When we find a laundry related product that stands out from the pack internationally we bring it to you locally under the Tullis name: it’s a brand that is always outstanding in one way or another.
We look forward to bringing more exceptional product to our Southern African customers in years to come, and in so doing perpetuating and growing Tullis’ tradition and heritage in our business.