The Team
Our Team
Joe Butler
Founder & Creative Director
Joe has taken Croglin from a small family enterprise to a problem solving, design led, fast growth enterprise.
Growth is coming from Croglin’s unique ability to offer craft at scale. This means volume production of individually crafted, hand finished products predominantly – but not exclusively - made of wood.
Joe has the ability to zoom out to see the big picture opportunity that projects offer and then zoom in to the design and production detail that will deliver the project brilliantly and meet client aspirations.
“A client described what we do as ‘engineering in wood.’ I like that. It rings true.”
Peter Toaig
MD and Director of Craft
Peter joined Croglin from his career as a furniture maker. He brings deep knowledge of wood and master craftsman skill at working with it.
“Wood is a beautiful material that has such depth to it. You never know quite what you’re going to get with a piece until you cut into it.”
As Director of Craft, Peter is the ultimate guardian of the ‘as near perfect as possible’ finish of every piece made by Croglin.
He is also the MD. Core to the role is ensuring that the ethos of Croglin, the things Croglin people care about, are reflected in everything the company does.
Darryl Appleton
Production Manager
Darryl manages the space where craft quality meets production quantities. Croglin is unique. Our competitors offer scale in pretty much entirely machined products or individually handmade one-off and small runs.
Darryl achieves a level of production discipline not seen in a craft environment. The nature of wood means that an essential part of the process is the sense and feel for the material that the Croglin makers have. Each piece of wood reacts differently. Croglin production management is about accommodating deft human skills in a volume production context.
We welcome clients dropping in on our workshop.
“If the floors are clean it’s a good sign everything is OK.”
Under Darryl’s management you will always find the workshop calm, clean and bright.
Darryl Appleton
Production Manager
Darryl manages the space where craft quality meets production quantities. Croglin is unique. Our competitors offer scale in pretty much entirely machined products or individually handmade one-off and small runs.
Darryl achieves a level of production discipline not seen in a craft environment. The nature of wood means that an essential part of the process is the sense and feel for the material that the Croglin makers have. Each piece of wood reacts differently. Croglin production management is about accommodating deft human skills in a volume production context.
We welcome clients dropping in on our workshop.
“If the floors are clean it’s a good sign everything is OK.”
Under Darryl’s management you will always find the workshop calm, clean and bright.
Darryl Appleton
Production Manager
Darryl manages the space where craft quality meets production quantities. Croglin is unique. Our competitors offer scale in pretty much entirely machined products or individually handmade one-off and small runs.
Darryl achieves a level of production discipline not seen in a craft environment. The nature of wood means that an essential part of the process is the sense and feel for the material that the Croglin makers have. Each piece of wood reacts differently. Croglin production management is about accommodating deft human skills in a volume production context.
We welcome clients dropping in on our workshop.
“If the floors are clean it’s a good sign everything is OK.”
Under Darryl’s management you will always find the workshop calm, clean and bright.
Helen Wilkinson
Commercial Manager
From first conversation to delivering the finished products is a complex, collaborative process. Whether it be packaging, display, client gifts - and everything in between - there is an balance that needs to be sustained.
It involves delivering the product everyone is proud of while delivering it within the contractual boundaries and constraints we agree along the way.
Helen makes sure the relationship between Croglin and our clients is clear, understood, and everyone knows what to expect when.
“I’m responsible for commercial and client account management. It’s essential for growing a successful business and it’s exactly what I enjoy.”
Croglin Makers
Penrith has proved to be a great place to find dedicated people who are fascinated by wood and working with it. Some come fully skilled and knowledgeable, some are learning and developing their skills.
From wood workers to leather wrappers, intricate assembly workers to foilers, quality inspectors to CNC specialists - our makers give the individual level of attention that delivers the consistent, as near perfect as possible finish to every one of our products.
Learning and the process of investigating new possibilities in materials, combinations of materials and new ways of working are central to Croglin and our team is central to that.
Directors
Joe met Ben Cottam (Chair of the Board of Directors at Croglin) and Alan Crook (MD of Cottam Brush Ltd and Croglin Executive Director) in 2013 when they worked together on the development of ‘the world’s best paintbrush handle’ for Lucas.
Lucas is an amazingly driven fitout and finishing company. They have a reputation for relentless attention to detail and quality.
There is a chain of events that links McLaren, Lucas, Cottam Brushes and Croglin. What Ron Dennis, Chairman and Chief Executive McLaren Technology Group, called ‘the desire to do things really well’ sparked the relationships. It is one that has endured.
Ben and Alan bring long term business drive and commercial manufacturing experience into Croglin on an advisory basis. Ben is Chair of the Croglin Board of Directors.
Join Croglin
We’re growing. If your craft is wood we’d love to hear from you.
If your craft is another material we’d love to hear from you too. We are very interested in the potential of combining materials and disciplines.
And if you haven’t found what your thing is yet, but you like to work with good people building a great business in Penrith we’d love to hear from you as well.
If we’re not learning we’re not growing. We welcome people coming into training and skill development with us.
Get in touch in any way that feels comfortable to you to introduce yourself. A phone call, CV, portfolio, an email saying you’d like to know more. We’ll always follow up.
Joe is our great networker and collaborator so contact Joe to begin with.
