Regina! rnest Brown
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BROADLY speaking, there are two schools of salesmanship—the brashly aggressive and the factually persuasive. I am happy to say that Mr. Reginald Ernest Brown is a leading exponent of the latter art-form, and remarkably successful he is at it.
For more than 30 years he has directed the sales affairs of Duple Motor Bodies, Ltd., and their associated companies. It has been a period of almost continual expansion. In the factories at Hendon and Loughborough there is a happy atmosphere, bred of stability and pride in craftsmanship. For this a great deal of credit must go to the sales director.
Reggie Brown has been in coachbuilding nearly all his life. He was trained in his father's business of Strachan and Brown (now Strachans Successors, Ltd.); of Hammersmith, and for a short time he was with the Fellows Magneto Co. But in 1928 there was one of those partnership upheavals in the family business and the Browns, pere et ills, joined Duple.
Reginald concentrated on the sales side from his earliest days with the company and must largely be responsible for the valuable clientele Duple have won during , the years. The late 'twenties and early 'thirties were not easy days in the economy of the company or of the country and the sales director bad to work extremely hard. In addition to winning every order he could from the home market, he went to Canada and the United States and sold coach bodies there, until import restrictions slammed the door on him.
For many years he has travelled abroad widely, making many friends in foreign parts, and by no means all within the passenger-transport industry. He has a tremendous capacity for work, much of which today has to be done in his office at Hendon. But he embarks with enthusiasm on tour after tour to the Continent, visiting each of the motor shows in succession, calling at factories and at the headquarters of coaching concerns.
During his time with Duple, Mr. Brown has had other business interests, scarcely connected with coach building directly. He has served on the boards of a number of companies manufacturing cameras, binoculars and precision instruments. At one time he was a director of Windsorian Holdings, a coaching company, and the Overseas Transport Co., a pioneer concern with interests in Africa. He continues to serve on the board of W. Frost and Co., newspaper proprietors, of Bridport. He can fairly be described as a man of wide interests.
Completing the sale of luxury coaches in a highly competitive market does not leave a man a great deal of time for other pursuits, but Mr. Brown is not one -to take his business worries home with him. Next to selling a great fleet of coaches, he likes nothing better than motoring for the fun of it He is an enthusiastic Jaguar man and with his current 3.4, complete with disc brakes all round, he is well into double figures with the marque. He is not a competition driver, but he has followed the sport since the heyday of Brooklands and is a keen member of the British Automobile Racing Club (which was the Junior Car Club before the war).
Car Racing Expert
When he was concerned with the Overseas Transport Co., Mr. Brown had a colleague on the board in the person of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. His Grace, an old racing man himself, owns both the horseand motor-racing courses at Goodwood. It was while watching a race at the latter that Mr. Brown was invited by the Duke to " come on the inside." From that day forward, the B.A.R.C. seized upon him to act as an observer on the circuit. This is a highly responsible job, for it involves studying the safety of drivers and spectators, driving methods and acting as an expert witness in the event of an accident.
At his home in Stanmore, he enjoys a large and colourful garden, about which he is remarkably knowledgeable. He also has a large and well-equipped garage where he can keep his cars at the peak of performance. He has long been an ardent cameraman and derives great pleasure from colour photography. Coaches, gardens and racing cars all make particularly happy subjects for his skill.
He is a member of the Coachmakcrs and Coach Harness Makers Company, a Freeman of the City of London and a staunch Conservgtive. A large, grey-haired man, of slightly hoarse but amiable speech, he has the characteristic stoop of tall men, but this was occasioned by falling off his motorcycle on the tramlines of Putney Bridge at the age of 14. Like most successful men, he pays a great deal of attention to detail and in his conversation he gives the warming impression of being genuinely interested.
An excellent host, he betrays a healthy liking for good food and drink, and he sees to it that visitors to Duple are properly entertained. Although he is not a golfer, he derives great pleasure from sales conventions with a golfing background and makes an annual trip to Gleneagles for that very reason.
Reggie Brown is a man who obviously likes people in a positive manner. Such men make friends quickly and they are likely to retain them for a long time. They also make first-class salesmen, but that, perhaps, is another story. T.W.