Who We Are
The Judge Ceilings & Interiors Group specialise in all interior building products from ceiling tiles, to carpet tiles. We use our vast supply chain, to ensure that we are offering the highest quality products at the most competitive rates. We supply materials nationally and internationally in some cases.
The Early Days
Our company started out in 1974 as Judge Ceiling Systems in Birmingham. The company was founded by Michael and Val Judge, and was focused mainly on the installation of suspended ceilings. Over the next 20 years, Michael and Val built the business up and created a solid brand which became know and abbreviated to JCS, whos name and brand colours became known nationally.
Throughout their time in industry, many customers and contractors would ask if they could buy the suspended ceiling materials from JCS. This gave Michael the idea that the company could double up as a supplier and installer of ceiling related products, whilst also offering the installation service. At this point, Michael and Val decided to relocate the company and their home to Blackpool, Lancashire.
From this, the JCS website was born. Products ranging from ceiling tiles, to ceiling lighting were introduced, and the companies supply range increased to national. Using only the strongest and customised packaging materials, Michael would pick, pack and post all manor of interior products from one end of the country to the next.
All these orders were made possible, by the shear amount of hours and investment that were put into the website. Such investments were made in to the JCS MF Calculator and the Suspended Ceiling Calculator, know now as the 'Ceiling Wizard'. These tools brought in many new customers as they were the first and original ceiling calculators on the market, with the added bonus that they were, and always will be free to use.
Company Sale 2016
By 2015, Michael and Val had already dedicated over 40 years of their life to JCS, and decided it was time to retire. Because of the dedication and hard work that they had put into the business over such a long period of time, they decided that they would not sell the company, but close it instead. Michael didn't want to risk selling the business, for all of its brand and image to be decimated in the wrong hands.
In a conversation with neighbour and friend Jim Finnegan, Michael explained his idea to shut the business down and retire. Jim had seen the potential of the business and the efforts from the Judge' over the years, and asked Michael if he would consider selling the business to him. Michael spent what seemed like a long time deliberating the offer, as he originally wasn't willing to sell. But due to the friendship and trust between the two, Michael agreed to sell JCS to Jim.
Expansion & Growth
Once the company had been taken over by Jim, the focus was on retaining what Michael and Val had built, but growing the product ranges and supply chain. With the help of Jim' son Adam, the companies product lines grew from 100 to over 600 hundred in the first two years, and continued to grow over the coming years. During this time, the company had morphed from being a suspended ceiling supplier, to a full scale interior building material distributor.
Creation of The Judge Ceilings & Interiors Group
Now that the business had grown and adapted into a much larger market, managing the range of products on one independent site was challenging. The creation of newly segmented websites became a must, this is where our new ceiling and interiors group was formed.
The above websites were specifically designed to focus on their own product type and categories. By segmenting our websites in to specialist sites, we would simplify our customers experiences and provide much better product support, pricing and availabilities, whilst still maintaining our roots.MF-Ceilings.co.uk was designed to focus on all things metal framework and drylining, specifically metal ceiling framework. InsulationPads.co.uk was designed to focus on all things insulation, specifically insulation pads. And Finally, CeilingGrids.co.uk was made with the focus on ceiling grid components such as cross tees/noggins and the relevant ceiling fixings to go with them.
Where We Are Today
Now that we have our fantastic group of websites, we are continuing to grow and re-invest into these sites as we move forward. Investments include new calculators and widgets to help create material lists for customers, such as our new Stud & Track Calculator. We have also created a ceiling grid identifier to help customers locate what grid system they have.
Our product ranges have also grown excessively to include the below;
- Ceiling Tiles
- Ceiling Grids
- MF Ceilings
- Stud & Track
- Plasterboard
- Insulation
- Lighting
- Fire Protection
- Access Panels
- Access Flooring
- Carpet Tiles
- Fire Doors
- Roofing
- Timber Products
- Fixings
- Tools
We hope that the above information provides you with a story of where we came from and where we are now. We are simply a family run business that is actively growing and investing in new products, websites and ideas.