There's many people with the ability to sell awnings, there aren't as many prepared to install them. John Tyler, AKA Portland Awnings, found me through my old days as a the UK's Weinor awning supplier - NickellsWeinor Sunblinds, where I served 20+ years. Luckily I had the chance to hold on to our contact numbers and John called me one hot sunny afternoon (2006 was a scorcher) while I was installing pub awnings for another company, a rather old and well known company from Chiswick. We'd been working for 10 hours in 90+ heat and I'd had about enough as I could take for one day when John called in a flap. It wasn't that the job was going badly, on the contrary it had been as smooth as could be imagined, it was just an awfully tough task to get it done in a day - even with 4 experienced installer on site.
Back to John. He'd 'invested' in a load of exhibition equipment, with a view to hitting the UK awning market, but couldn't get it installed or working. He asked for assistance and, as is my nature, I was happy to talk them through it on the phone for half an hour while they got it sorted. John and I hit it off and I went on to install all Portlands awnings through to 2008. Sadly, John became ill and the credit crunch zapped all enthusiasm they had for selling high end products. John's bounced back since though, and those that know him are hardly surprised - least of all me.
