A Shipley firm which started as a one-man painter and decorator business 125 years ago today has grown to become a £20 million company.

Bagnalls, which has its headquarters in Manor Lane, now covers the whole of the UK and carries out work abroad.

The firm, which is still in the hands of the family which founded it, has 14 offices in England and Wales and employs 570 painters and decorators and 100 managers and sales and admin staff.

The group was started by Alfred Bagnall, who was apprenticed to a painter and decorator in Shipley before he decided to make a go on his own. Mr Bagnall's first contract was painting a bridge in Shipley which netted him £289.

Now the industrial painting company nets contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and is the biggest firm of its kind in the world. It is also involved in a wider range of work including concrete restoration, interior design and protective coatings.

One of its proudest moments was when it won the contract to paint the new Wembley Stadium in 1923. The company will be tendering to be the main contractor of the new Wembley when it needs painting. It also tested a new paint product called Dulux in 1928.

The firm has also had a permanent team of painters maintaining the former ICI plant in Huddersfield - now run by Astra Zeneca - since 1928 .

The company is currently going for growth and was today celebrating its 125th anniversary with the opening of an extension at its £200,000 headquarters which almost doubles the size of the building. The extension opening was due to be performed today by David Senior, the prospective Tory Parliamentary candidate for Shipley.

The company is headed by chief executive John Bagnall, 58, - great grandson of the founder - who said: "I became managing director of the company in 1972 and in that time we have seen great expansion."

His son Stephen, 31, is currently operations director of the firm and is helping it expand even more.

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