This document provides an overview of business archives, including what they are, why businesses keep them, and common types of records found in business archives. It discusses the importance of business archives in shaping economic and social development. The document outlines different types of businesses and the associated records, as well as legislation affecting business records retention. Finally, it provides examples of companies using their archives and heritage for business purposes like product design, marketing, and public relations.

1. Business Archives
Kiara King, Ballast Trust Archivist
Kiara King, Ballast Trust Archivist

2. An Introduction to Business
Archives
• What are business records and
why do we keep them?
• What types of records will we
find?
• Types of records & business
• Legislation affecting business
records
• Using business records
• Issues surrounding business
records
• Finding business records
• The business archives sector
• Resources

3. What are Business Archives?
Business archives are the historical records of for profit
businesses, business-related bodies and businessmen and
women.
Why are they important?
As Scotland’s businesses and industries were and are crucial in
shaping its economic and social development, so business
archives naturally have a wider value to society. They can be
found in most archive repositories.

4. Why businesses keep archives

5. Records and archives are a business tool
They provide:
• Information value
• Evidence and proof of business transactions
• Support for legal requirements and to defend intellectual property
• A work tool to managing resources and staff
• Inspiration and documentation of product innovations
• Confidence in a brand and customer loyalty
By keeping archives, businesses capture
today’s experience, knowledge and business
know-how for future use.

6. Why we keep businesses archives

7. Summary of users of business archives
Internal External
• Legal Researchers
• Marketing • Corporate histories
• PR • Social histories
• Corporate Social Responsibility • Economic histories
• Design & production Family historians
Local historians
Press

8. Types of records found in business archives
Corporate Records Production Records
• Memoranda and Articles of • Technical plans
Association • Models/prototypes
• Minute books Employee Records
• Share registers • Staff files
• Letter books • Accident books
Financial Records Marketing & Sales Records
• Advertisements
• Annual reports and accounts
• Sales ledgers
• Balance sheets
• Account books
• Ledgers

9. Types of business: Sole traders
• Owned by an individual
• Individual responsible for all finance / debts
– Unlimited liability
• Records:
– Finance
– Correspondence
– Orders / production
– Staff
– Personal papers

10. Types of business: Partnerships
• Two or more partners
–“& Son”; “& Co”
–Not “Ltd”
• Partners are jointly responsible for finance/debts
–Unlimited liability
• Records
–Partnership agreement
–Finance
–Correspondence
–Production / sales
–Client records

11. Types of business: Private Limited Companies (Ltd)
• Limited liability
• Board of Directors
• Managing Director & Company Secretary
• Shareholders – only liable for what they invest (i.e.: limited liability)
• Act within terms of the Companies Acts
• Statutory records
• Registrar of Companies at Companies House:
www.companieshouse.gov.uk

12. Types of business: Public Limited Companies (PLC)
• Created by Companies Act 1980
• Limited liability
• Chairman
• Company Secretary
• Directors
• Shareholders – only liable for what they invest
• Listed / quoted on the Stock Exchange
• Registrar of Companies at Companies House:
www.companieshouse.gov.uk

13. Legislation: Companies Acts
19th century acts brought in requirements for Ltd companies to
maintain records:
• 1844: “full and fair” balance sheet and Board minutes (compulsory 1908)
• 1856: Memorandum & Articles of Association
• 1928: Profit & Loss Account to be presented at AGM and to Registrar
20th century sees more acts in 1948, 1967, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1985
• 1985 Act
• Repealed all earlier acts
• Regular returns to the Registrar
• Regular information to shareholders
• Certain records to be created and available for inspection: minutes, register
of members
• Dissolved companies, Registrar can transfer records to TNA / NRS

14. Legislation: Companies Acts
• 2006 Companies Act came into force in 2009, largely
superceding the 1985 Act
• Changes to access to Register of Members
• At least 1 shareholder must be a “natural person”
• Allows e-communication to shareholders
• AGMS not obligatory for Ltd companies
• More details through:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/berr.gov.uk/policies/business-law/com

15. Other Legislation
• Range of other legislation and statutory regulation which affects
business and the records it keeps:
• Data Protection Act 1988
• FOI Act 2000, FOISA 2002
• EIR 2005 EISR 2005
• Sector-specific regulations, e.g. pharmaceutical companies

16. ACTIVITY
What examples can you think of that demonstrate companies
using their archives and heritage for a business purpose?

17. Case Study: Liberty
“Brand heritage to me is the history of one’s identity. It is
important to keep that history in mind, but not to be enslaved by
it,”
New York Times article from 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/fashion/09iht-rlib.html
The business primarily uses the archives
overseen by their Archivist, Anna Buruma
as inspiration for its printed textile range,
although sometimes its contents are
mined for retail marketing campaigns too.
And the wholesale fabric unit also calls on
her to help clients who are ordering
exclusive fabrics.

18. Case Study: Liberty
Archive collections used for current products
19 collections listed on NRA
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=B4792

19. Case Study: Russell Hobbs
Use of heritage rather than archives? Russell Hobbs merged with spectrum in 2010,
does that explain why their website doesn’t mention their history?
http://uk.russellhobbs.com/collections/heritage-collection/

20. Case Study: Crombie
Excellent example of heritage used for design and also on corporate
website http://www.crombie.co.uk/heritage.html
Records held privately but listed on NRA
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=B3199

21. Barbour
Example of company using archive details for new products. So there’s a reference to an archive (but no entry on NRA) and
company has a heritage/history section on website http://www.barbour.com/barbour-history

22. Diageo - brand passion and integrity
With access to original
source material, the
Archive team can use
their knowledge, passion
and commitment to verify
brand information and
discover new brand
truths giving sales and
marketing teams a
unique insight into the
brand to support
launches, celebrations
and PR events
NSBAS Case Study http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/case-study-diageo-brand-passion-and.html

23. Tennents - celebrating and marketing heritage
“The Tennent’s archive is one of our
key assets and hosts a wealth of
facts, figures and memorabilia
spanning hundreds of years of the
brewery’s history.
The archivists have been
instrumental in providing us with
ongoing brand information to
support our marketing &
advertising,”
- Mike Lees, Managing Director of
Tennent’s Lager
NSBAS Case Study http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/case-study-tennents-celebrating-and.html

24. Capturing the Energy - future-proofing industry
"The North Sea oil and gas industry
represents one of the most
remarkable success stories in the
history of the UK.
The technical achievements of the
past 30 years are awesome and
deserve to be remembered,
celebrated and learned from.”
- Brian Wilson, former energy
minister and CtE patron.
NSBAS Case Study about working with an industry today to capture its records and knowledge
http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/case-study-capturing-energy-future.html

25. UNESCO - Business archives of national importance
“A unique resource for
understanding this historic and
controversial episode – vital to
scholars but also of fundamental
value more generally to the history
and heritage of the Scottish nation.”
- Professor T M Devine
A case study from the national strategy that demonstrates sometimes business
archive collections have a much wider societal value and are of national
importance. This is the case for the Company of Scotland records held by
RBS and NLS
http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/case-study-rbs-and-
nls-unescos-uk.html

26. Other examples
Anniversary celebrations:
–House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer http://www.marksintime.marksandspencer.com/
–Opportunity to strengthen brand
Product development:
–John Lewis, Boots
http://www.managingbusinessarchives.co.uk/getting_started/exploiting_the_archive/case_study
Employee induction:
–Boots, HSBC
http://www.managingbusinessarchives.co.uk/getting_started/exploiting_the_archive/case_study
See more case studies:
–www.managingbusinessarchives.co.uk/
–www.scoarch.org.uk/projects/businessarchives
Luxury brands in the fashion industry and their archives
–www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/fashion/09iht-rintro.html

27. Issues: Take-over, merger, de-merger, and growth
• Sale / purchase of brands & subsidiaries
• Acquisition and de-accession of records
• Intellectual property rights
• Change of corporate direction & diversification
• Value of heritage assets
• From local to national to international
• Where is HQ?
Users of business archives
• Where do the records go?
• How can the company make use of them?
Article by the Archivist at Kraft on the use of heritage in post-
acquisition integration
http://www.shibusawa.or.jp/english/center/network/pdf/07_Tousey.pdf

28. Issues: when companies go bust
• Saving records – whose
responsibility?
• What to keep?
• Technical records – require
expertise to understand
these records and so
recognise their value.
• Making them accessible to
researchers.
• Commercial sensitivity.
• Intellectual Property Rights.

29. Issues for Business Archivists: The
Business Archivist
• Where should the archives sit within the • Qualities needed
company structure? –Influential
• What is the role of the archive? –Communicative
–Marketing –Flexible
–Legal –Responsive
–Dumping ground –Forward-thinking
–A bit of everything –Innovative
• Must link to corporate aims & objectives –Advocacy
• May have to be more than an Archive
Pdf of slides from HSBC archivist’s talk about expanding the archive service (good diagrams of staffing)
http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/materials/2011_conf_hsbc.pdf

30. Activity Activity
What are the challenges which can face archivists
managing business archives?
Split into 4 groups, each working on a different activity
and report back

31. Where do we find business records?
• Active business
• In corporate headquarters
• In out-of-town business premises
• Attics/basement/cupboards
• Collecting archive services
• Universities
• Local government
• NRS (company & court records)
• Museums
• Trusts
• Community and enthusiast groups

32. Finding business archives using NRA
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp

33. NRA Search result

34. NRA Search Full Record

35. NRA Search by Business Sector

36. How do we protect & grow business archive collections?
• National Initiatives & Strategies
• Business Archives Council of Scotland
• Local partnerships with repositories and businesses
Eg The ‘Living Archive’ partnership between the University of
Dundee and Canongate Publishers

37. Councils & Strategies
• Business Archives Council
http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/
• Business Archives Council of Scotland
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/bacs/
• National Strategy for Business Archives (England & Wales)
2009 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-
sector/business-archives-strategy.htm
• National Strategy for Business Archives (Scotland) 2010/11
http://www.scoarch.org.uk/projects/businessarchives
• Raising awareness amongst business of the value of their
records
• Increasing the number of archives
• Raising the profile of business records with the public
• Raising standards in care

38. National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland
Aims to make business archives in
Scotland valued, representative of
economic activity and innovation and
accessible to all in order to ensure
the survival of the nation’s important
business records and industrial
heritage.
Find out more at:
www.scoarch.org.uk/businessarchives

39. Useful resources for business archives
• Turton (ed), Managing Business Archives (Oxford, 1991)
• ARC – Archives & Records Association magazine. Business
group issue – May up to 2008, September from 2009.
• Scottish Business & Industrial History, journal of the BACS
• Business Archives: Principles and Practice & Business Archives:
Sources and History, journals of the BAC
• Managing Business Archives website
http://www.managingbusinessarchives.co.uk/
• Business Archives Scotland blog
businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.com/
• Scottish Business Archive Strategy
http://www.scoarch.org.uk//businessarchives
• Guardians of heritage NY Times articles
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/fashion/09iht-rintro.html?_r=0

40. Business Archives on Twitter
Finally it can be interesting to see how business archives and other
archives promote themselves via twitter:
• @ballasttrust = Understanding technical records since 1987! We work with business archives -
processing records of shipbuilding, locomotive & engineering industries mainly.
• @Design_Archives = Eighteen archives of British and international industrial and communication
design at the Faculty of Arts University of Brighton
• @the_abh = Tweets for the Association of Business Historians dont necessarily reflect the views of
the council or membership. RTs = interesting not endorsement #bizhis
• @POHeritage = P&O Heritage Collection exists to preserve and celebrate the maritime history and
collections of one of the best known shipping companies in the world.
• @CoopArchive = Co-operative Archive : Archive repository based in Manchester, UK for the records
of the co-operative movement
• @coke_archives = The Coke Archives' Twitter feed updated by our Archivists. Ask us history, pop
culture, or collectors questions
• @RBS_Archives = History and heritage information from The Royal Bank of Scotland Group's
Archives team. They also run @JohnoftheBank Tweets from John Campbell an18th century banker
tweeting events of the 1745 Jacobite siege of Edinburgh in real time. Drawn from his diary.
List of business archives on twitter here https://twitter.com/i/#!/BallastTrust/business-archives