It was not easy to raise a smile during the recent big freeze. But every snow cloud had a silver lining for Dominic Slingsby.

While the rest of us gritted our teeth against the bitter north easterly winds and trudged doggedly through snow drifts, Mr Slingsby was rubbing his hands – not to keep warm but with anticipation – in spite of having to dig himself out of the street where he lives.

Because, the longer its stayed cold, the better it was for his long-standing family business which is striving to cope with the chill wind of intense competition in a global economic downturn.

Dominic is the fourth generation Slingsby to run the business founded by his great grandfather Harry Crowther Slingsby in 1893 to produce labour saving trucks and trolleys.

Now Slingsby, based in a former print works on Otley Road, Baildon, makes only a small share of the 35,000 pieces of industrial and commercial equipment it sells – increasingly online but also from a 1,400-page catalogue.

The saying ‘from a pin to an elephant’ springs to mind as you leaf through the catalogue with winter products such as bags of rock salt, grit bins, shovels and automatic salt spreaders, tyre grips filling several pages. Slingsby also sells flood protection equipment, including filled sandbags (I wondered where you got those), flood barriers and pumps.

Queues of people thronged the firm’s trade counter at the end of last year to stock up on salt, enabling Slingsby, which launched a salt distribution and bagging plant in 2012, to smash all its monthly salt sales records after selling hundreds of bags to householders in the last week of December.

But winter goods are only a small part of what Slingsby does. Trolleys – both manual and powered – still form an integral part of its product range along with ladders and platforms.

From a pack of batteries, noticeboards, or a sweeping brush to a multitude of storage containers, shelving, cleaning products and equipment, protective clothing, indoor and outdoor furniture to smoking shelters. The list goes on.

Slingsby’s 120-year anniversary catalogue is bigger than ever.

To quote its marketing slogan – “we don’t think we’re the experts because we’re 120 years old, we think we’re 120 years old because we’re the experts”.

While Dominic Slingsby, who joined the business in 1982, is proud to be carrying on the family tradition, he’s candid about how tough things have been in recent years.

It suffered another difficult year in 2012 due to a difficult first half and quiet summer trading. Sales for the year fell from £15.2 million in 2011 to £14.6 million. Pre-tax profits slumped from £422,000 to £102,000.

The final dividend was cut from 28p in 2011 to 15p due to a combination of difficult trading conditions and the cost of IT investment, making a total for the year of 19p (in 2011 it was 32p).

Chairman John Waterhouse said: “Trading conditions experienced in the second half have continued into the new financial year and there is no visibility as to the timing of any upturn. However, the board continues to invest in the future to ensure that to the extent that market conditions allow, the group can capitalise on its brand awareness.”

Both Mr Waterhouse and Mr Slingsby praised the firm’s staff for their efforts.

“We remain profitable but keeping the business on track in such a difficult climate involves tough decisions and is not easy,” said Mr Slingsby.

Nevertheless, he remains optimistic that the business is in good enough shape to take advantage of any upturn when it comes and even expand again.

Although one of the oldest workplace equipment suppliers around, Slingsby faces stiff competition from both the UK and overseas and is having to adapt. Dominic said: “While our modern version of the traditional catalogue remains an integral part of our business, we’re increasingly developing new e-commerce services to take advantage of the big swing to online buying.

“That will be key to the business going forward. It’s all about service and the ability to provide free next- day delivery for thousands of products along with a high level of customer service and follow-up support.”

It’s an inherited determination to succeed. Dominic, whose brother Christian is the company’s London-based sales director, described his ancestor who started it all as being ahead of his time by visiting overseas markets, particularly around the former British Empire, to drum up trade – which Harry Slingsby did as far afield as Argentina.

Harry was working in the family beer bottling business when he got fed up of humping heavy loads around and devised a trolley to make his life easier. From that move in 1893 Slingsby’s has survived and expanded.

For about 100 years HC Slingsby operated from Preston Street in Bradford where its main products were a range of trolleys – for the local mills, railway porters and a wide range of other uses – as well as wooden ladders, known simply as ‘The Slingsby’, and renowned among tradesmen for years.

Supplying spare parts also produced extra business and laid the foundations for the modern operation which supplies its mind-boggling array of items of all shapes and sizes for a multitude of industrial and commercial purposes.

Slingsby moved to its present site in 2006 where it continues to operate some moulding, bespoke manufacturing and prototyping operations but the main focus is now firmly on being a distribution business.

Dominic said: “We’re very proud of our past but need to marry our heritage – which has given Slingsby a good and trusted name – with ensuring we compete in today’s demanding and fast-moving marketplace.

“Online sales will be key to the future and we’ll continue to improve and enhance those operations. Meeting key delivery times and schedules enables us to help our customers manage their supply chains, which is a vital part of running an efficient and successful business.

“That includes being able to find something a client needs and get it to them as quickly as possible, preferably the next day.”

As well as sourcing and supplying single batches of items, Slingsby has also developed expertise in providing whole inventories of equipment for companies fitting out new premises.

“It’s a valuable adjunct to our operations and part of our continuing quest to find new business opportunities,” said Dominic.