Welcome to Charles Bentley
Making it easy to love your home more
We are global suppliers of stylish and fantastic quality home, garden and leisure products. What we believe in is simple – there’s no place like home. It’s that feeling of belonging, the happiness that comes with spending time with your loved ones in the place that you love the most. That’s why we go above and beyond to help you discover the perfect products for your home.
The search ends here
From dining sets to outdoor toys for the kids and all things in between, we take the hard work out of shopping for your home by giving you thousands of products to choose from. We leave no stone unturned and keep an eye on the latest trends so that you’ll always find something fresh and up to date – just without the designer price tag!
A big part of our philosophy is only selling products that we have discovered, created or made ourselves. Each product is put through its paces until we’re satisfied and it’s only then that we’ll put our name on it and give our seal of approval. If it’s not good enough for us, it’s not good enough for you.
Exceeding your expectations
Fast-forward and we’re now a multi-million pound company able to source products directly from manufacturers across the globe. From an easy to use online service to great prices and speedy delivery, we want to exceed your expectations at every opportunity. With a friendly UK based customer service team, we are always on hand and ready to help with whatever you need. We have a specialist sales team that communicates daily with our factories in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
We actively seek out your feedback and use it to constantly improve our products and services.
Always moving forward
We’ve grown so much over the last few years and this has helped us to launch our Dropship service, the easy and affordable way for retailers to expand their online product ranges without major upfront investment. Our 202,000 square foot warehouse in the Midlands allows us to effectively stock, pick, pack and dispatch products directly to customers on behalf of retailers.
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1880
Our first shop The family business moved to Ashby Square, where they had a yard with workshops and their own shop. William and Helen had 13 children! There were 12 boys and just one girl – and four of his sons became brush makers in their own right.
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1900
Workshop in the back garden The couple’s eldest son Thomas bought 30 Leopold Street. He built a workshop in the rear yard and then, his very own business was born! He marked this by hanging a brass plate proudly on the front wall of the house.
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1910
2nd generation: Charles Bentley Thomas ran a successful business for many years, but time passed and he was now ready to retire. After looking for a possible purchaser, he discovered that one of his younger brothers, Charles, was interested. So he sold the business to Charles for £250 and happily retired!
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1910
New ownership After buying the business for £250, Charles updated the original brass plate on the front wall of his house. It can still be seen at our head office today!
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1919
3rd generation: Charles (Charlie) Bentley After serving for three years in the army, Charles’ son Charlie (yes, another one!) returned home and took over the business. He married Annie Simmons six years later.
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1944
4th generation – Ray Bentley At just 16 years old, Ray Bentley left school and was drafted into the Navy for two years. He followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and later joined the family business.
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1950
Expansion in the business Wedding bells rang on the 23rd March 1950, when Ray and Mary married! They then expanded the business by building a large workshop in their back garden.
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1971
New opportunities Ray formed an equal partnership with his wife and two sons, Charles and Robert. This was also around the same time that the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) opened in Birmingham. We were offered half of another company’s stand to exhibit on. It was a great success and we still exhibit at the same show to this day!
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1980
Further expansion: Derby Road We kept growing and needed more space, so bought 37 Derby Road for £75,000. We soon replaced the original building with a brand new warehouse and office space.
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1990
5th generation Mary and Ray retired and passed the partnership to their sons, Charles and Robert. Charles eventually became the Managing Director – which he still is to this day!
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1992
New warehouse Things kept growing forour family business and we outgrew our premises, moving to Central House on Jubilee Drive, Loughborough. At the 44,000 square foot office and warehousing facilities, we proudly produced, dispatched and stocked 100s of different products for the first time. We’re equally as proud to say that Central House is still our company headquarters!
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2005
Rebranding We became Ltd and rebranded for the first time. Our original green logo changed style and colour, with the unique Bentley ‘B’ now promoted on packaging and products.
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2005
BuyDirect4U BuyDirect4U was formed in the early 2000s. Truth be told, it was originally started to sell our excess Charles Bentley stock. However, BuyDirect4U just kept growing! Investment was made into new products and the brand soon specialised in stylish and affordable home, garden and leisure products.
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2006
www.buydirect4u.co.uk/ BuyDirect4U moved from eBay onto its first website, listing all our products under a single, recognisable brand.
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2008
Going worldwide In 2008, we relocated our head offices across the road to Monarch Way in a multi-million pound investment, an essential move due to further expansion. The year also saw Charles Bentley expand worldwide with factories in Sri Lanka and China, as well as offices in Hong Kong. This helped us to offer innovative products at competitive prices to our customers.
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2009
Targets BuyDirect4U hit a huge milestone in terms of sales. We turned over our first million pounds! The brand had come so far in such a short space of time, and we couldn’t have been more thrilled.
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2010
Celebrating 150 years From humble beginnings as a small shop in England to a global enterprise, the Charles Bentley 150th anniversary was pretty special. So, we celebrated in style by holding a series of community, educational and environmental events throughout the year within the local area.
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2010
Winner of Most Outstanding Exporter In 2010, we were honoured that Charles Bentley was presented with a gold award as the Most Outstanding Exporter of the year by the Sri Lankan National Chamber of Exports (NCE).
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2011
One of Britain’s brightest businesses As 2011 came to a close, The Telegraph named us as one of Britain’s Brightest Businesses. Their report aimed to celebrate the 1,000 mid-sized companies that weathered the economic storm and were set to be the foundation of the UK’s recovery. In the same year, we also became the first company worldwide to design and produce patterned brushware.
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2011
BuyDirect4U’s expansion BuyDirect4U began selling into Germany, France, Italy & Spain and we purchased a 22,000 square foot warehouse and offices to cope with our rapid growth.
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2012
Manufacturing Excellence Award We were entered into the Manufacturing Excellence category for the 2012 awards. Drum roll... and Charles Bentley and Son Ltd were presented with the highly commended award! James Bentley, 6th generation family member and General Manager, received the award on behalf of the whole Bentley family. The awards focused on how family values help drive businesses forward and also review company manufacturing capabilities.
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2014
Finalists in two categories Awards season was back again and this time, we were finalists in two categories, The Family Business of the Year and The Manufacturing Excellence award. We were delighted to be awarded Highly Commended in both categories.
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2015
Further expansion at North Road After ten years of successful trading, we purchased a new 202,000 square foot warehouse in order to accommodate for our ever-expanding brand, BuyDirect4U, which enabled us to launch more products and operate in expanding channels.
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2015
6th generation James Bentley and Naomi Steel were appointed 6th generation directors, strengthening the Charles Bentley team.
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2016
Further growth BuyDirect4U launched an exciting new website with fresh branding. We traded globally to over 31 countries and became providers to three large retailers in the UK, including Tesco!
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2019
A new chapter We’re constantly evolving and have rebranded, merging Charles Bentley and BuyDirect4U together under the Charles Bentley brand. We’re really excited about the future and all the opportunities that this will bring. There’ll be loads of new product developments to share (keep an eye out for the Spring Fair in 2020!) and we’re also expanding into new markets, including Poland, Germany, Canada, Spain and France.
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2019
Our Plastic Free range This year has also seen the launch of our new Charles Bentley Plastic Free range, in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society. The range includes brooms and cleaning solutions for around the home, made from sustainable and high quality, natural minerals. We’re delighted to say that our Plastic Free products will be stocked in Sainsbury’s and many of the UK’s leading retailers.
Our mission - “We go the extra mile, to find the perfect products that make it easy for you to love your home, keep it spick and span and create a space you’re proud of. Brought to you directly from our home to yours. You can be confident that when you buy from us, you buy well.”
Our values - what we believe in and stand for
Hard work - We’ll leave no stone unturned in the search for the very best products. We’re never workshy and happily roll up our sleeves to get the hard work done for you.
Collaboration - We put what customers want above everything else, which means we’re always ready to listen to what they have to say. We work with retailers, suppliers and international partners as a collaborative team to make sure we get the right products. We’re firm believers that two minds are better than one.
Forward-looking - From products with greater sustainability to making sure our factories and processes run as efficiently as possible, we’ve always got an eye on the future. We look at upcoming trends and market changes to make sure we stay ahead of the game and work with an open mind.
Simplicity - In a world of ever increasing complexity we like to keep things simple. From our product range, selected simply because we know you’ll love it, to our easy to use website and on-going aftercare and even the language we use. We never over-complicate things.
