J S Wright & Sons Limited in India and Pakistan

History of relationship of C. L. Surinder & Co., India (CLS) and J. S. Wright &
Sons Ltd. (JSW). Supplying English Willow Clefts (EWC) to India and Pakistan.

C.L.Surinder are J.S.Wright & Sons Ltd. sole agent in India.

How did J. S. Wright came to export to India & Pakistan?

It could not have been possible without the great efforts in the beginning of 1978 by Mr. C. L. Gupta (CLS) & Mr. J. D. Waterhouse (JDW of HDL). HDL are still Hardwood Dimensions Ltd., Manchester, UK. They were and are still importing and exporting exotic hardwoods to the sub continent and all over the world. HDL were doing business in India from the early 1960’s mainly in the export of hornbeam blocks from USA to India & Pakistan Shuttle Industries for weaving cloth. In this respect they were represented in India by C. L. Surinder & Co. and their tie up came in the year 1975.

In 1978 Mr. J. D. Waterhouse saw that there could be an opening for selling English Cricket Bat Willow Clefts to India which was already being done by one other supplier. It took a year for JDW to find out a reliable & competent supplier of this specialised timber to cater to the sports market, that being J. S. Wright & Sons Ltd. Mr. Waterhouse approached Mr. Carleton Wright & Mr. Nicholas Wright of JSW who were very keen to expand and HDL seemed a very good way to grow. JSW were already doing business with one customer in India, namely Symonds & Co. Pvt. Ltd. of Allahabad but that was it, no customers in Pakistan and little opportunity to grow further in India without knowledge and support.

In spite of many hours of hard work and several & continued visits to the Cricket makers, Mr. Gupta could not get a good response from the market as which he did not anticipate. Cricket bat makers were importing EWC from another supplier and were quite happy with the product and the prices. They were not ready to try or to shift to a new supplier. Mr. Gupta did not give up his hopes. In 1979 the company called Sareen Sports (SS), Meerut gave him the first chance to try JSW’s willow clefts and placed and order for 200 clefts. Thereafter he started getting few and small orders from Meerut & Jalandhar.

J D Waterhouse, Suresh and CL Gupta.

It was nearly the end of 1980 when Suresh Gupta, son of Mr. C. L. Gupta joined CLS after finishing his graduation in Commerce. HDL sent him an invitation to come to the UK for a practical training in the items they were already dealing in through CLS from the UK. These items included Ash wood planking for tennis rackets and hockey sticks, beech & hornbeam for weaving shuttles as well as with JSW for the willow clefts. It was a great experience for a young man of 19 years of age.

In early 1982, Mr. N. J. Wright came to India with Mr. J. D. Waterhouse to survey the Indian bat market. A team of all four people visited door to door to every bat maker in Jalandhar, Meerut & Allahabad. The business gradually started growing and everybody concerned accepted this slow growth very patiently. In 1984 Suresh again visited the UK and had spent a good time with Mr. Carleton Wright of JSW, a great man with extra ordinary knowledge of Willow, he was chairman of JSW and the leading authority of English Cricket Bat Willow in the World at the time. He was again accompanied and represented by Mr. J.D. Waterhouse (HDL).

Sanspareils Greenlands, the leaders of the bat making industry in India & in the worldtoday were introduced to JSW. Greenlands placed their first order for 500 clefts in the Grades 1 & 2 in early 1984. It can be estimated that they started making English Willow cricket bats in 1983 sometime and are now JSW’s largest customer.

While the Indian market was growing slowly the same was happening in Pakistan where HDL represented themselves as it was less complicated with fewer customers and the importing was very easy. CA Sports were the first customer in the Pakistan to buy from HDL and they are today the largest customer there buying direct from JSW. The lunch at Chelmsford in 1994 (attended by J.D. Waterhouse, Carleton Wright, N. J. Wright & Suresh) is still remembered by Suresh. This was when a colossal order of 1000 pieces of MG1 was placed with Mr. C.L. Gupta by S. Greenlands, who was in India that time. This was very unusual and unexpectedly big order both in terms of grade and value. Mr. Carleton Wright was not willing to supply 1000 pieces of Grade 1 exclusive without the other grades. Suresh convinced them to accept this order with a view that this Company was doing some thing different and could be a bright future to all concerned so this was ultimately been executed.

JSW kept on increasing the production every successive year anticipating a consequent increase in demand. Carleton & Nick were overseeing the planting of some 20,000 trees per annum in expectation of future demand By the year 1990 our market share of the English Willow market in India was very good, this has since fallen back with the introduction of more suppliers.

Our customers were quite happy and satisfied with the services and the consistency in supplies in every required grade. Some complaints were definitely being faced in the beginning but with the hard efforts & experience of Mr. C. L. Gupta & Suresh of CLS the things got sorted out and the business kept on increasing tremendously year by year.

Another fascinating story of the history was an instance in the year 1989, Mr. C.L.Gupta was sitting in the factory of some bat maker in Jalandhar. A gentleman came in to buy 40 odd pieces of the English Willow Clefts in cash. Mr. Gupta immediately left his seat & followed that gentleman to see where he went. It was Mr. V. D. Puri of R.N. Sports, a very small but a skillful company that makes English Willow bats. They were buying very small lots of 20 to 30 pieces of English Willow Clefts locally. Mr. Gupta went in to the factory and gave his introduction. He convinced RNS to import 200 to 300 pieces on their own directly from HDL. Mr. Puri said it was not possible because they had limited funds and paying bills in time could be a problem. Mr. Gupta said that it was okay if they could not pay in time, he shall get them cleared on CLS’s behalf. It was how the business started with this company. Now R. N. Sports is a reputed company, importing around 13000 to15000 clefts every year.

There are many other small but important things to be shared but it is hardly possible to mention all within this page. Suresh visited the UK again in 1986 where he saw the Facsimile machine first time. Its operation and technology made caught his immediate attention. He made up his mind to get it installed in his small office as soon as it would be available in India. CLS were the first company who got it installed in Amritsar (India) in order to speed up business dealings and communication with the UK.

The business is still increasing every year. JSW have also increased their production anticipating the demands. Unfortunately as the market grew in India far in excess of anticipated numbers JSW parted company with HDL in the year 2002. This was however a smooth transition, price was becoming a major factor and competition was growing. There was not room to have HDL and CLS taking a share. JSW retained CLS and still regard HDL, very highly as they have so much to thank them for.

The Pakistan market continues to grow but not as fast as India, there are some new customers coming into the pot these days and if Pakistan was to get settled politically we would certainly see the same growth there as well. Now Mr. Chaman Lal Gupta (1999) & Mr. Carleton Wright (2009) have passed away, Mr. J. D. Waterhouse has also retired from HDL since 1996/97.  But this business is still growing every year with the utmost efforts, dedication & experience of Mr. Nicholas Wright and Mr. Oliver Wright who source the trees and organise the planting and felling. Mr. Jeremy Ruggles who runs the production and grading side with the assistance on the ground in India of their representative Mr. Suresh Gupta of C. L. Surinder & Co.

We feel proud that we have been supplying to all of the world renowned cricket bat makers in India for the last 30 years and a lot of this is entirely due to C.L.Surinder and Company with Hardwood Dimensions Ltd.