With the scale and success of the ventilation business, it’s a wonder as to how ‘The Profiles Range’ ever even became a consideration. Vicki talks through the tribulations that led to the company beginning. “By the earlier 80s Jake’s Dad, Keith was running the business, we had set up new workshops in Uckfield, and I had started working in the office alongside Keith’s Mum. We had some with big contracts with WSCC and Gatwick North Terminal, and for big jobs like that, you need big machines, so we bought our first plasma cutter. It was the most amazing machine and whilst it was really for cutting out ducting patterns I soon started to play at cutting pictures of the boys (Jake and Mark) on their ponies, and this is where the inspiration for the Profiles came from really, even if I didn’t realise it at the time. Then in the early 90s there was a massive crash in the building trade, and lots of our customers simply stopped spending, and suddenly we had no work and no money. Being a family business we simply had to survive – there was no other option really, but we managed to keep all of our loyal staff paid and we rode the storm. 

Then in 1994 Keith had a heart attack, and then we were really ‘up the creek without a paddle – he was the technical expert and without him we couldn’t do the clever engineering or any of the ducting. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and it certainly is. Remembering the cut outs of the boys on their ponies I set about creating our very first designs, which I sat and drew and cut out on the kitchen table – they were a hedgehog, squirrel, birds nest, cat, horse, and a mouse. We made the first brackets and then the whole family was going out and about to craft fairs and Christmas markets selling them, which meant Bretvents survived and The Profiles Range was born.”