We are a family owed business established in 1908.  Toby Bridges (Managing Director) is the fourth generation of the family to be involved in the business.

Originally called North British Engineering Equipment Company Limited, based in Dean Street Newcastle, we supplied brakes and allied equipment to the tram industry gradually moving into the wholesaling of electrical equipment.  In the 1950’s we became a supplier of 3M’s (then Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) electrical insulation tape.  As tape was slowly replacing jointing methods such as screws and rivets the demand of tapes grew and our business changed with demand.

In the mid-seventies we changed our name to match our business to North British Tapes Limited and relocated to larger premises in Killingworth, Newcastle.  Our association with 3M was going from strength to strength where we were not only selling electricians tape we were selling their complete range of tapes, respirators, adhesives, abrasives and electrical products.  By 1986 there was a distributorship agreement signed where by products were to be handled by us and the staff to be trained by 3M on their products.

By the 90’s we became one of the UK’s largest distributors of tapes, abrasives, maintenance and electrical products and at the end of the 90’s another change was brought in and packaging materials became a major part of our business.  To go with these new improved changes our logo changed and was abbreviated to NBT.

We now specialise in maintenance, repair and operations, offering our customers everything they require under one roof.  Tapes, packaging, adhesives, abrasives, tools, stationery, safety, janitorial and maintenance products not forgetting all of our other services like vendor managed inventory, project management, bar coding, electronic proof of delivery and coming very soon on-line ordering.

Throughout the 100 years we have been trading the most important which has remained constant is our ‘positively outrageous customer service’.  This not only applies to our external customers but we also meet the needs of our employees.  Existing customers know how much we add to the partnership then merely meeting needs.

We look forward to keeping these alliances and creating new ones.