Acme started out as a local refrigeration service provider. Our co-founders Jim Hurley & Peter Hendricks installed and maintained refrigeration equipment for local businesses throughout Blackburn & the local area. They served local butchers, bakers and market stalls – basically, any business that needed to refrigerate their produce. Cold rooms & serve-over counters were the most popular. At one point, Acme installed and maintained every refrigeration cabinet on Blackburn Market – one of the biggest and best-renowned markets in the region.
In the early 60’s, Refrigeration was still in its infancy. Only businesses and mid-wealth families had it, and even less had freezers – but that was all about to change.
The Chest Freezer revolution started in the 60’s – people realised that they could go to the butchers, buy an entire leg of lamb & freeze it, rather than buying fresh, smaller cuts every week. Chest freezers became more affordable and grew in use both commercially & domestically.
Acme capitalised on this growth, being one of Blackburns main suppliers of chest freezers – to both the commercial & domestic market. At one point, Acme even opened a high street shop – ran by the wives of Jim & Peter – that sold chest freezers, pre-filled with frozen goods.
The demand for Chest Freezers led to Acme moving to a bigger premises – twice. Firstly, they moved to (the now demolished) Greenfield street in Blackburn in 1969, where Acme rented an old Methodist church & storage unit – largely to make room for more stock of Chest Freezers.
Subsequently, Acme moved to Lambeth Street in Blackburn in 1972, into some old school buildings, to provide yet again more space. This is where they stayed, until the big move to Whitebirk Industrial Estate – Acme’s home to this day.
Acme were shipping Chest Freezers by the container load from Holland & Belgium (through Peter Hendricks contacts). Containers would turn up and have to be unloaded by hand – no fork lift trucks. Engineers, including the recently retired Alan Meats, had the heavy task of unloading and stacking freezers 3-high in storage. They were rewarded with games of football in the empty storage containers when finished!
