Thatcham Glass Centre to close tomorrow after almost 70 years of trading

One of Thatcham’s oldest family businesses will cease trading tomorrow (Friday).

Thatcham Glass Centre, based in Green Lane, has permanently closed after almost 70 years of serving Thatcham, Newbury and the wider community.

Owners Kevin and Veronica Heimsoth say they have chosen to retire on a high after struggling for years to find new staff, despite their workload being bigger than ever.

Mr Heimsoth said: “We’ve had a good run and we’ve both still got our health.

“I said ‘let’s end on a good note’.”

And the couple say they have been moved by all the messages they have received from their customers.

“A lot of our customers have become friends,” said Mr Heimsoth.

“They come in and they're so upset.

“One came in. He makes models and cases, and he’d brought one of the transit vans as a model.

“He couldn't get the right colour, so he painted it.

“He put all the sign work. It’s identical with all the sign writing and everything.

“And he put it in a little showcase and presented it to me.

“He said ‘we are so going to miss you so much’. We had so many customers like that.

“It’s been so nice, and it makes you feel kind of guilty, but everything’s come to a head.

“It’s the lease on this building; it’s the guys who are all retiring.

“ If I can’t get the workforce through the door, I can’t do anything about it.”

The company was started from nothing by Heinz Heimsoth, a former German prisoner of war who was interned at Newbury Racecourse.

It has since grown to provide comprehensive glass cutting, glazing and polishing services to hundreds of schools, homes, colleges, councils, small businesses, estate agents and pubs in the local area.

“I always said that Thatcham Glass was my dad’s baby and my child,” Mr Heimsoth continued.

“We never looked back. It just took off.”

But while its closure certainly marks the end of an era, it signals a new start for the Heimsoth family.

Mr Heimsoth added: “I’m not a lazy bugger. I will go off and do something else eventually.

“It’s got to be something I enjoy. Whether that’s something to do with the industry again, I don’t know.”

And he said his son will soon be continuing with his own venture in Hermitage.

Heinz Heimsoth, a skilled glazer and sign painter, started Thatcham Glass from the back garden of his wife’s family home in Station Road.

The business soon grew, and they moved to new premises on the Bath Road in 1978.

But upon Mr Heimsoth’s death in 2001, the family business relocated a couple minute’s away to a dedicated workshop in the industrial estate off Green Lane.

And the rest is history.