I started Rock Technologies in late 2000.

There was a gap in the UK domestic market for chalk balls and my friend and climbing partner, Bill Birch, lent me £1000 to finance the start up operation. My very kind and long-suffering Mother offered me the use of her garage as a workshop.

The first guidelines I set and still adhere to today, are that we would only use the highest grade magnesium carbonate in our products. As a climber of some 50 years, I have no wish to climb using industrial grade mag carb with its higher heavy metal and poison compounds. Likewise, I won’t use it in products for my customers.

The early days were difficult, trying to set up a production process that was both economical and efficient, however I managed it and in the first 12 months manufactured 50,000 chalk balls. My friend Bill was responsible for sales and easily sold these and wanted even more production. Our record year for chalk ball production was 2017 with just over 500,000 produced and sold.

Much to the pleasure of my mother, I departed her garage in 2002 for larger premises and eventually ended up in Waterside Mills in Greenfield, located in the Peak District Northern England. Located just below Wimberry Rocks which is a fantastic and adventurous climbing area - not many bolts here!

John Lewis joined me in 2006 as a production operative and fortunately, he remained with Rock Tech and is now Production Director and a shareholder in the company.

Steve joined us in 2022 and runs our office set up, sales and social media. He brought with him a wealth of organisational talent obtained through his years in the Automotive trade, something we badly needed to streamline and expand the business.

We are very lucky to have a very motivated, loyal and hardworking workforce.

Richard Hyde

Achenkirch,
Tirol
Austria.

January 2025

ROCK TECH