Page 34 - PBCOctober2019

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 16 No.2 October 2019 !34

For Odilla and Keith it was a case of love at first sight, she gave up her job with
Campagnolo moved over here and they were married soon after. As I have said Odilla was a
business woman and it was not long before she tried a first venture in this country, she took
a stand at the Brighton Toy Fair and displayed a range of children’s stuffed animals, but it
was not a success. Her next venture was a plan to import ladies luxury leather handbags.
Unfortunately the Italian factory was sited on the bank of the river Almo which flooded and
washed the factory out of existence, so that never got off the ground. While waiting for
the next idea she started teaching languages at night school, and while she was doing this
fate took a hand.
Her old boss Campagnolo was at a meeting with a fellow business man who happened to be
the largest manufacturer of bicycle tyres in Europe when the chap mentioned that he had
some sort of a problem in England with his tyres. Campagnolo suggested to him “let Odilla
handle it” which he did, and was so pleased with the outcome that he offered Odilla the sole
agency for his tyres in Britain. Thank you said Odilla and promptly formed Elsmar
Distributors specialising in cycling equipment. This was a wonderful combination, Keith knew
the bike trade and with Odilla’s expertise and having known many of the leading European
equipment manufacturers personally, Elsmar became an instant success. Keith once told me
that they received a commission on every foreign bicycle saddle sold in this country. An
unfortunate comment by a director, John De Fritas at Holdsworthy got back to Keith and
Odilla and she had no compunction about relieving Holdsworthy of their Campagnolo sole
agency and taking it on board herself.
It has to be said that Holdsworthy was not a good payer, which meant there was a
constant turnover of building staff and most of the racing men gradually left. As the years
went by more and more non-cyclists were employed until the character of the building shop
completely changed. Never the less it was still a good firm to work for and as foreman I was
one of the few in the firms pension scheme and also received two bonuses a year based on
the profits the firm made. The first bonus was paid out in the spring of about £15, and the
second one in November which could be as much as £55 in a good year, just in time for
Christmas.
Soon I was doing evening and weekend work again and every Friday Fred the van driver
would deliver a load of components and I was building and truing wheels for them. I forget
how many I built each week, it could have been ten or even twenty pairs of wheels. Again I
forget how much they paid me, probably about two shillings a pair. I was never able to get
down to the time Wally Carr the foreman of the assembly shop took, who could build and
true a pair of wheels in twenty minutes, but I did get near it.
The character of the firm really took a downward turn when in one year Arthur Eves
retired, Mr and Mrs Holdsworth and her brother Austen Bryas who had been the proprietor
of the firm since the 1930’s all died and the remaining Director John De Fritas managed the
business. From that day no more managers were promoted into directors, an era was over.