“We strive to be the first to offer a new product, a new beneficial position or a new angle on an old problem. We lead from the front. We are not the biggest company in our field, but we intend to be the best.” – Jenx Co-Founders, Clive & Catherine Jenkins
We’re wishing our company co-founders, Clive and Catherine Jenkins, a very happy retirement almost 40 years after they established Jenx!
Pioneers of their field and with an outstanding contribution to helping transform thousands of children’s lives, the vision Clive and Catherine had for Jenx was for “a better life and a brighter future for children with special needs”.
The mission continues in the innovation at Jenx and Jiraffe today and the values live on in each member of staff – and will continue to change children’s lives well into the future. Always Supportive; Always Caring; Always Safe; Always Ethical; Always Encouraging.
Back to the beginning
Jenx Limited has grown from an idea to a benchmark setter in its industry, both in the UK and around the world. Its concept was formed by Clive in summer 1982. Clive was an engineer and Catherine was working as a physiotherapist in schools for children with special needs across Sheffield.
Little could they have known back then that, decades later, the business they established would have changed – and in some cases, saved – the life of thousands of children, worldwide.
We’re marking Clive and Catherine’s retirement in a number of ways – but what better way of telling their story, and that of Jenx, than with a trip down memory lane featuring insight from Clive and Catherine themselves?
It was in October 1982 that Jenx’s first Prone Board was made in the cellar of Clive and Catherine’s home in Walkley; a month later, Jenx had moved into its first premises on Oakes Green in Attercliffe.
“It all started, for me, quite by accident!”, said Catherine.
“I was working as a pediatric physiotherapist – it had been my lifelong dream, so I worked in the special schools in Sheffield and I happened to have a child that we couldn’t find a suitable stander for.
“Since Clive – my other half – was very handy, I came home with a list of things the device needed to be able to do and I said to him, ‘please make me a stander’.”
It was here that Jenx was born. Catherine and Clive spent the subsequent months travelling all over the UK to show off their new furniture, which offered countless advantages over the then competition. They often travelled together to find out what other products therapists wanted, before putting plans into action back at Jenx HQ.
Recruitment, growth and premises
Jenx had outgrown its Oakes Green premises by the end of 1983, and along with a newly appointed sewing machinist, Lynne, moved to a council unit in Neepsend.
The recruitment of Jenx’s first woodmachinist, John, soon followed – as did a move to a larger unit in Neepsend on 10 December 1984. That was an important day for more than one reason as it was the day Catherine and Clive’s first daughter was born!
Neepsend was to be Jenx’s home for quite a few years. Recruitment continued; Jenx soon had Grace in the office, plus Lynne, Chris and Viv in the sewing room; John, Andy, Mick and Don in the woodworking shop. Later that decade, Jenx were again on the move, though, with the purchase of a unit on the Nutwood Trading Estate near Middlewood in October 1990.
By that time, Jerry had joined Jenx, too – the company’s first regular Sales Representative whose job it was to cover the whole of the UK
A healthy team and state-of-the-art machinery were both key as Jenx continued to grow – the company was one of the first small UK woodworking companies to use a CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) Router to machine all main parts, cutting down the huge number of jigs which took up space and needed to be maintained.
April 2001 came, and it was time for Jenx to move into its new facility at Wardsend Road, Hillsborough – following an extensive refurbishment – a premises where the company remains to this day.
Product innovation
In the years that have followed, Jenx has continued to innovate – designing bespoke products which are specialised to help children develop and grow when they have a particular problem or condition.
Catherine comments: “Jenx products are not just a piece of furniture. They aren’t just a safe place to put a child – they’re a therapeutic device. The products are made in such a way that they are used to help the child develop their postural schools.
“This will in turn help them in school, in their relationships with people, and therefore in their cognitive development, because they don’t have to concentrate on how uncomfortable they are or how unstable they are.”
Clive adds: “Our product design is very much around giving the child opportunities and skills that nature hasn’t given them naturally.
“The children and the needs of the children are essential to Jenx and they’re what it’s all about. But I also see our products as tools which enable therapists to treat and work easier with children.
“Now we distribute products from a number of companies, but always with the children in mind and how therapists can work with them.
“We’ve always aimed to make products which will last. This is because of the environments in which these products are used, and the people who will use them demand a lot of the product, so it needs to be robust.
“The ideas and the ethos of the Jenx Monkey Stander, for example, which in 2020 has been in production for 25 years, pervades everything that Jenx does – we want a quality product that lasts and does the job that it needs to do.”
Jenx – a ‘destination employer’
Establishing Jenx as a ‘destination employer’ has also been a huge part of the company’s ethos from the very start.
As Catherine puts it: “We wanted to create a great place to work, so that people who work with us enjoy what they’re doing and they know that they’re doing a worthwhile job. We want our staff to enjoy the time they spend at work and they’re encouraged to train and improve themselves if they want to.
“We look after children, but we also consider parents and therapists as they need products that are attractive, they want to use and that are easy to use. What I’d love is for every child in Sheffield to say, ‘I’d love to work at Jenx when I leave school’. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
The need to innovate and adapt
Jenx Ltd has constantly evolved and changed under varying circumstances, something which gave the company a platform from which to handle the challenges of 2020.
“Suddenly this year – woomf! We hit a pandemic – what do we do then?”, said Catherine.
“We’re always looking at ways we can improve what we offer to the customer, something that Jenx continued, right from day one, even in challenging circumstances. Innovation and adaptation both feed directly from the company’s roots – and we’ve certainly done that over the course of this year at an increased pace.
“Online consultations and assessments are now offered, so that people can work with us online – a great advantage to our customers which brings a whole new dimension into what we can offer.
“We’ll still have people on the road, of course, but we can be a bit more immediate and a bit more particular in our response with our online presence, which we’re offering now.
“We’re building on our vast experience, with Catherine coming from a pediatric-physiotherapy background and we’re bringing in professionals who specialise in positioning and children’s conditions to train not only our sales team, but also less experienced therapists and parents.”
And as its founders pass over the reins and Jenx looks to the future, including its 40th birthday in 2022, in Catherine’s words: “Jenx has every intention of being the company it can be in the future – the best company that it can be.”
