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Tony Almond Home & Garden - The Story So Far
by Therese Almond
Tony Almond was born in 1941. He was raised in Crosby and Waterloo, where he lived his entire life except for a brief emigration to Australia with his wife Patricia, son Paul and daughter Therese as £10 POMS in 1967. They returned in 1970 with their second daughter Elizabeth and finally, the family was complete.
In the late seventies, Tony and Patricia started a small business manufacturing resin chess sets and nativity sets in the back garden of their home. This developed into a thriving concrete ornament manufacturing business which subsequently needed larger premises by the early eighties. In 1982, Tony bought an empty shop and workshop space at 29 Brighton Road in Waterloo. Back then, Brighton Road was a very quiet road with only two shops; Tony Almond Garden Ornaments and F & N’s Motor Factors.
The business was based around the manufacture and wholesale of the ornaments that Tony and his wife created. They even went onto selling them at various markets throughout Liverpool and the North West. By this time, Tony’s three children were old enough to start helping in the business too. This meant that the shop was able to be manned daily and a rapid extension started to transpire. As the shops reputation increased, so did the range of goods that were sold. It was no longer just garden ornaments for sale, it was now also DIY, Plants, Stationery etc.
Throughout the next decade, Tony saved up his money and bought the remaining empty shops that were on the same block … he eventually owned the entire row of 7 properties! By now, the business had stopped manufacturing the ornaments, ceased trading at different markets and decided to concentrate on the shop.
Sometime during the late eighties, Kwik Save bought the container base opposite Tony Almonds and overnight put Brighton Road on the map! The shop went from strength to strength over the next few years but sadly in October 1994, Tony suffered a fatal heart attack whilst on holiday in Spain with Patricia. He was only 53.
The family decided to continue Tony’s legacy and make Tony Almond a limited company after his death, and they continued trading. In 1998 the opportunity arose to purchase new premises and the family quickly took advantage of it. Tony Almond D.I.Y. & Garden Centre was born in the old Crosby Motor World showroom on South Road.
Just over a decade later, we made the decision to merge the two shops in order to create one mini superstore on South Road, with all products under one (rather big!) roof. On entering the store, you will feel as though you have entered a real ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ or so we are constantly being told! And with Tony Almond’s LTD selling everything ‘Home and Garden’, we are aiming to give the other big independents a run for their money!
Last but not least, in 2007 the first of Tony’s grandchildren started working in the South Road shop making Tony Almond LTD a third generation family business and in 2001, Tony’s fifth grandchild was born and named after him, so at last we have another Toni (she’s a girl) Almond in Waterloo, allowing Tony’s legacy to continue in more ways than one.
If you have any memories, photos etc you would like to share with me about Tony, or the early days of the business, I would gratefully appreciate hearing from you! You can email me at [email protected] - Thank you!