Leisure Play

• Tony Darling, left, Marketing Director, Operations
Allen Payne, Publicity Director.
"Service is, of course,
vital to any operation and
we attach great impor-
tance to this aspect of the
business. It is also
important to pay attention
to detail, For instance,
when we approached
Chinese takeaway propri-
etors we had a letter
specially written in
Chinese and the owners
were delighted that some-
body had gone to the
trouble of writing to them
in their own language."
The Bell-Fruit Manu-
facturingCompanyemploy
800 people but there are
2,250 employees through-
out the Group. The skills
of these people are
diverse and apart from
production techniques in-
clude metalwork, elec-
tronic research and
development, screen prin-
ting, cabinet making,
electronic assembly and
artwork.
The principle technical
advance at Bell-Fruit in
recent years has been the
introduction of micro-
processor driven fruit
machines and they are
proud of the fact that
they are an estimated two
years ahead of the
Americans in this re-
spect. All machines
leaving the company are
micro-processor con-
trolled and during the last
two or three years a great
deal of electronic exper-
tise has been acquired.
Bell-Fruit could never
be described as an
inward looking company
and among their export
customers are companies
in West Germany, Spain,
Monaco, Austria, Switzer-
land and Ireland. There
are Bell-Fruit subsidiary
companies in the USA,
Australia, and Holland
and established business
arrangements throughout
Europe.
Bell-Fruit machines are
sold to operators world-
wide and are to be found
in far-flung corners of the
globe. As Publicity Direc-
tor Allen Payne pointed
out: " You can find Bell-
• M aterial b eing shaped for cabinet assembly.
Leisure Play - September
• Philip Bedborough in the Screen Print department.
Fruit maclnnes in newly
emerged Bophuthats-
wana, approaching the
southern tip of Africa."
Even the history of the
Bell-Fruit original build-
ing at Leen Gate is
fascinating. It used to be
a Priory inhabited by
French monks and over
the years there have been
reported sightings of the
"Black Monk!" It was also
a tannery for many years.
In 1962 the building
was converted into a
series of small workshops
and the only access was
through the old Priory
archway -
still the
access for vehicles. One
of thse workshops housed
the Premier Cash Register
Company, a firm which
dealt in adding machines
as well as cash registers.
It was that company
which formed the basis of
the first Bell -Fruit
company in England. The
Cope Allman Interna-
tional Group acquired the
business in 1966. It was
about this time that the
present Chairman, Dr. Bill
Pilkington, joined Bell-
Fruit and soon after-
wards an era of substan-
tial growth and diversifi-
cation commenced.
In 1968 the company
produced their first
electro mechanical fruit
machine called Full
House. These machines
were so popular and so
well made that a few are
still to be found in pubs
deep in the heart of the
English countryside.
Bell-Fruit, known and
respected in the amuse-
ment machine industry
throughout the world,
have come a long way
since the days of the Full
House. Although the tech-
nology used in their
current machines has
changed beyond recogni-
tion, the company still
insist on the same strict
standards of quality ,
workmanship and play
appeal that have enabled
a number of Full House
machines to survive 13
years of constant use.
• Don Anderson, brother of Notts Forest and England
footballer, Viv Anderson, working in Sub Assembly.
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