When my great-great-great-grandfather William opened his Mansfield bookshop in 1851 (October, we think), Queen Victoria was 32, Lord John Russell was the UK prime minister and the American Civil War was still a decade away.
Today, 175 years later, Linney remains a family enterprise rooted in Mansfield and deeply connected to our local community.
I doubt William would have imagined that his humble book-selling business would grow and evolve to become a 37-acre hi-tech campus with a workforce of more than 1,200 people. Or that his great-great-great-great-grandson (my son, also William) would one day become the first of five seventh-generation Linney children to join the family firm.
There are more than five million UK family businesses. New research reveals that only 369 medium-sized and larger family businesses (of 100 or more employees) have been trading for more than a century. Even fewer are over 200 years old. A handful of butchers, bakers and hatmakers can trace their origins back to the 16th century.
The key to Linney’s longevity is how we’ve responded to uncertainty and risen above adversity – from global economic turmoil and two world wars through to the COVID lockdown.
While none of us could have predicted the impact of the pandemic, I certainly never imagined that our usually bustling warehouses and manufacturing facilities would become eerily silent face-visor assembly lines. Our print operators, designers, admin teams and others worked alongside each other (at a suitably safe distance, of course) to make NHS-approved personal protective equipment for medical teams on the frontline.
And that has been the golden thread running through the Linney story: our diligent, resilient, restless people.
Running a family business can be unpredictable and dramatic. The past decade has been one of political, societal and technological disruption. Today, we are living through a fourth industrial revolution, an era defined by the rise of AI, which will transform how we live, work and interact.
So, once more, we must react and adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of clients in an ever-evolving world.
That’s why I prefer to refer to our 175th year as a milestone rather than an anniversary. Yes, let’s take time to reflect on our rich heritage and celebrate our people. But let’s use this moment to focus on where we’re going, not just where we’ve come from.
I’m in no doubt that we’re entering an era of transformation that will be as profound as anything we’ve ever experienced.
We can honour our 175 years in business by remaining diligent, resilient and restless.
Thanks for everything you continue to do. Here’s to the next 175 years.
Miles Linney
