1909 – 1918; A Business is Born It is unclear as to exactly whether or not Robert was planning to set up his own business before Finn died, but it would appear that it was the catalyst. where he and his small team delivered flints and clinker gathered from farms and gas works to the local council's road construction sites. As demand for building materials grew, Robert pioneered sand and gravel quarrying in East Kent. 1919 – 1928; A Going Concern On January 11th 1928 Robert Brett and Sons became a private limited company, Robert Brett & Sons Ltd with a nominal capital of £25,000, divided into 8,000 preference shares and 17,000 ordinary shares. The company was incorporated ‘with the principal object of acquiring and taking over as a going concern and carrying on the business of a Haulage and General Contractor; Quarry Owner; Gravel and Stone Merchant and Timber Merchant as carried on by Mr Robert Brett at Canterbury.’ 1929 – 1938; Surviving the Great Depression In contrast to the trend Robert Brett & Sons Ltd continued to be busy and take on workers during the Great Depression. New housing estates, public works in Canterbury and along the Kent coast kept our plants and fleet busy. In 1934 the Robert Brett & Sons Ltd Sports Club was formed by Robert, Herbert and William Brett. The clubs home was the former County Athletic Club Grounds to the north of the Wincheap Depot. 1939 – 1948; War Has Been Declared We felt the impact of World War II as everyone did. We lost friends and family; buildings and plant. In the years that followed we expanded through both acquisition and seizing on opportunities. New products were available and new distribution channels established that saw our products being sold in Scotland and Wales. 1949 – 1958; Up to date and Scientific Plant 1959 – 1968; Keeping Up To Date with Progress The construction boom that started in 1959 saw our production levels increase five fold. At the same time the third generation of Brett’s took charge of the company in the guise of Diana, Tim, Tony and John. It was a busy start to the decade, with new quarries opening, more acquisitions, building our first (and many more) ready mix concrete batching plants, working on major road projects and finally constructing ourselves a purpose-built head office…after 21 years of waiting! 1969 – 1978; Vital New Resources Between 1973 and 1978 we won Gravel Pit Restoration Awards for agricultural restorations, a playing field and an urban redevelopment starting us on a path that would see us winning more than 39 awards over 36 years. 1979 – 1988; Moving a Mountain of Aggregates The 1980’s saw a recession and consequently our quarries started to operate well below full capacity, our ready mix concrete batching plants saw record lows of orders and closed and dismantled our Thurrock Permwhite plant. It wasn’t until 1984 that trading conditions improved. The mid-eighties saw Brett change; we restructured, we closed some activities and acquired others, we opened and closed plants in Canada and North America and sold our shares in Saudi Ready Mixed Concrete. And after 15 years in the group, Granite Products in Jersey was benefitting from a building boom on the island. 1989 – 1998; Abundant Sources from the Sea In the early 1990’s another recession hit and consequently our number dropped to only 470 people. It wasn’t until late in 1994 that then Chairman, Tim Brett, was able to report a ‘definite improvement in our prospects.’ In addition to several acquisitions that took place, we took the opportunity to strengthen our seaborne supplies of aggregates. We commissioned a new dredger, the Britannia Beaver, we developed a new terminal and processing plant at Northfleet and bought a 50% share in Volker Dredging Ltd. 1999 – 2008; Turn of the Century 2009 - today