Experts in all things aquatic

John and Allan Riley started making angle-iron aqua-riums and hoods in a garage and garden shed in 1963. The two-man operation quickly achieved such success with its products that lack of space forced a move within just nine months to a 760 m² factory in Bury St. Edmunds, roughly 150 km north east of London. In parallel with its own production activities, the relatively young company became a general distri-butor in the UK of renowned aquarium brands, beginning in 1966 with its cooperation with the German company Juwel Aquarium. This was a move that made a significant contribution to the success of the Juwel brand in the UK, and up to the establishment of Juwel Aquarium UK the two companies worked closely together for over 30 years, still maintaining a cordial relationship to this day. Since 1971 John Allan Aquariums has also acted as the UK distributor for the Eheim brand. Over the years it has also worked closely with JBL, Arcadia and LAC as well, adding Curvet to this list two years ago.
Company founder Allan Riley.
“In 1968 we were the first company in the UK, perhaps even in Europe, to use silicone for joining aquarium panes,” recalls Allan Riley. John Allan Aquariums has a reputation for manufacturing sturdy, top-quality aquariums, although it withdrew from the mass market some time ago on account of the growing quantity of cheap imports from Europe and the Far East, specialising instead in the niche segment of large aquarium combinations. The company presented a sample of what it can do at the UK trade show Glee Petindex in Birmingham, where it exhibited a new 1.5 m long freshwater aquarium with a silver hood and a base cabinet in beech. Another new product on display was a 1.2 m marine aquarium combination with a base cabinet of light-grey aluminium.
The company unveiled some superb aquarium combinations at the show in Birmingham.
Shopfitting is an increasingly important pillar of the firm’s business. John Allan Aquariums entered this sector in 1979 and is now one of the market leaders in the UK, with several hundred customers. “Since a store has to be visually attractive too, the pet product trade is taking a growing interest in shopfitting. We’re very busy in the autumn and winter especially,” says Allan Riley.
John Allan Aquariums is proud to be probably the only British aquarium manufacturer that is able to produce all its installations, whether aquarium combinations or shop fittings, by itself. To do this, the company has three different plants in…