Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

The market in which he was engaged was highly competitive, with many retailers and their suppliers jockeying for business, as evidenced by the pages of advertisements of sports goods manufacturers and retailers in cricket publications and the keen prices that they featured. The brothers had an eye for other ways of promoting the business than conventional advertising. One was to post the latest cricket scores in the shop window in the expectation that some at least of the watchers would be attracted into the shop. On occasions, the crowd on the pavement was so large that the police intervened and called a halt to the display of the scores. Frank would have noted with some satisfaction that this led to more publicity in the local press. While some businesses inevitably soon fell by the wayside, the Frank Sugg business prospered and expanded. In 1906, when it claimed to be one of the largest concerns in the industry and had the backing of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, the business was incorporated as Frank Sugg Ltd. Its head office was now at 12 Lord Street, Liverpool, a prestigious shopping street in the centre of the city. 102 It had other branches in Cardiff and Leeds, and manufacturing facilities in Liverpool, in premises adjoining its head office that it had shrewdly acquired, and in Castleford. A branch in Sheffield soon followed. As well as conventional retailing, the firm developed a thriving mail-order business, making use of the excellent railway and postal services of the time. A letterhead from the early 1900s describes the business as ‘manufacturers of cricket, football, hockey, tennis, golf, croquet, fishing tackle and gymnasia’, though many of Sugg’s products, particularly clothing, would have been bought-in from other, mainly local, manufacturers. The Sugg brothers were not afraid to venture into new lines. For example, the firm began to produce model yachts for such retailers as Gamage’s (who were also leading retailers of sports equipment). Model yacht sailing in public parks was a popular family pastime in Edwardian England. Sugg’s range of model boats included some of high quality which, to this day, are sought after by collectors. 103 Sugg’s also produced horse-riding tackle and clothing, perhaps reflecting the brothers’ active involvement in horse racing around the time of this Frank’s Business Career 105 102 Most of the street’s fine buildings were destroyed by enemy bombing in the Second World War. 103 See http://www.vmg.uk/pages/resources/small_boat/sugg.html. Collectable Sugg- branded lawn- and table-tennis equipment, from before 1914, was also advertised on the internet at the end of 2010.