Witham 100 Years… A Passion For Quality

For Witham Group’s Nigel Bottom, customer service, quality and sustainability are his driving force, born out of a love and dedication to supply the best lubricants on the market. Ian Dickson, Automotive Journalist interviews Nigel to find out more…

“I love cars”, says Nigel Bottom, managing director of the Witham Group. But, after talking to him for an hour, it’s clear he has another passion, one which runs much deeper. Oil. He’s a bit like a chef, talking animatedly about quality ingredients. Nigel loves everything about oil, that most essential of liquids which keeps the machines we use running perfectly, from tractors to racing cars. What Nigel doesn’t know about lubricants probably isn’t worth knowing, despite modestly proclaiming “I’m not a technical person”. It’s a passion and knowledge for oil that’s seasoned and ingrained over a lifetime. You see, Nigel is the third generation of Lincolnshire-based Witham Oil & Paint Ltd and Witham Motorsport, part of the Witham Group of companies that he has taken over running for the past 17 years. Nigel has, quite literally, grown along with the family business, a business that has become one of the UK’s leading oil blenders and distributors. Asked to sum up what sets Witham’s lubricants and paints apart, he says: “We’re intrinsically linked to the quality end of the market and have been recognised for many years for doing the right thing, using the right materials that are of the highest quality specification for OEM approval.”

In 2021 Witham celebrates its 100th anniversary, and the company shows no signs of resting on its laurels. As well as manufacturing its own range of lubricants called Qualube, the business is developing more environmental ranges such as an impressive range made from sheeps’ lanolin as opposed to fossil fuels. It’s working on exciting new technologies, such as BlendTek. This innovation uses ultrasound and solar energy to blend lubricants faster, reducing energy consumption and creating a carbon-neutral blending process. It’s also developing a rapidly expanding motorsport division, representing the UK’s topflight motorsport scene as the official importer and distributor of high-quality Motul automotive products.

But despite the company’s innovative nature there’s one thing that won’t change, its passion for people, quality, and the environment, nurtured over a century of business. As Nigel says, proudly: “Looking after our customers, our teams and our community, and ensuring all our products are made to the highest standards, will always be at the very heart of what we do, both now, and long into our exciting future ahead.”

Named after the River Witham, which was used to transport the company’s raw materials back in the 1920s, Witham Group quickly diversified from manufacturing bicycle oils and candles into meeting the needs of the new industrial age, producing lubricants that would power the steam engines and vehicles of the day. Shortly after the company’s inception, Nigel’s grandfather Les Bottom was brought in to look after sales, while his dad Geoff joined in the 1960s along with partner Alan Smith who was the third generation to work within the business. Geoff then becoming Sales Director & Chairman of the Group before his retirement in 2004.

In 1991, Witham’s reputation for quality was cemented when it received the Royal Warrant, from Her Majesty the Queen, an official stamp of approval for goods and services supplied. Only the very best companies receive such an accolade. As well as this, Nigel is a former president of the United Kingdom Lubricant Association (UKLA) and is the current Chair of the Technical Committee within the Union of the European Lubricants Industry (UEIL), the trade association in Europe representing independent businesses in the lubricants industry.

Comprised of 600 lubricants companies across Europe, Witham’s association in the UEIL gives it the credibility to produce lubricants to the very highest technical specifications. “Together we are bigger than the major international global brands,” says Nigel, “and the UEIL gives us free and open access to technical information of new specifications from, for example, the automotive manufacturers.”

Over the years the company has grown and diversified significantly. “I suppose we were very much known and recognised as a specialist agricultural lubricant company and everything linked within that industry,” explains Nigel. In fact, as much as 60% of Witham Group’s business was involved in some way in the agriculture industry. But from that the company pivoted into adjoining industries: plant, road haulage and horticulture, as well as a burgeoning paint division manufacturing and selling its ownbrand Woco. And the company grew from there.

Perhaps inevitably, Witham Group was bound to become more involved in the automotive industry. “We supply a lot of passenger car engine oils and garage oils for workshops, but on an industrial level rather than the pretty retail side,” Nigel said. Witham Motorsport is a subdivision of the company -dedicated to the UK’s four-wheeled motorsport scene, from British Touring Cars to the Goodwood Revival, and working with French lubricant manufacturer Motul.

Speaking about why Witham Group chose to partner with – and represent – Motul in the UK, Nigel says: “If you want to develop a brand of motorsport lubricants, and there’s many that have tried and failed, and thrown a huge amount of money at it, it will never be as good as the likes of Motul”.

“What I like about Motul is it’s a product for the track and a product for racing. A lot of companies make lubricants for high performance cars, then they say that can go into a racing car. Motul backward engineers it. They make products for the cars on the track first. It’s the Formula One way of doing it. We’ve inherited a mega brand with a huge investment in marketing globally. When you talk to the professionals, people know a lot about Motul.”

In motorsport, every millisecond counts, and while teams spend a lot of time thinking about tyre pressures and alterations to the front wing, “oil will make significantly more impact than many of those other small things, but it’s probably the most overlooked”, says Nigel.

Like any of the best partnerships in life, common goals and shared values are one of the hallmarks of success, and it’s something that unites Motul and Witham Group. “We have a lot of respect for Motul and a lot of synergies with them,” adds Nigel. “Their family ethos, family ownership, how they speak and talk about lubricants. Being ethical and honourable. They came to us because they did very little in the UK. They knew by dealing with us it would be dealt with on time, in full and correctly.”

One aspect of Witham that you don’t often get dealing with a much larger corporation is a friendly voice on the other end of the phone. Nigel takes great pride when talking about the company’s technical support. “We want our customers to gain the benefit of our experience and understanding of all aspects of lubricants and paint application,” he says. Whether you want to talk about paint or pistons, if you have a question Witham is only too happy to answer it. “We want to help our customers, no matter how big or small, put the right products in their vehicles and machinery. Nothing makes us more proud than the many great relationships we have with our customers, some of which we have known and worked with for many generations”.

As the company races towards it’s 100th anniversary, its forefathers’ passion for quality products and people is still very much the driving force behind the company today.

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