At just 17 years old, charlie started his service and repair career, working on engineer levels and large transit theodolites at Survey & General Instrument Co. (SGI) in London where servicing and repairs differed vastly from today’s methods. Charlie would often manufacturer his own parts and even use spider webs as eyepiece reticules! It was not long until SGI started importing Kern instruments, designed by the famous Dr. Heinrich Wild, who designed the first optical theodolite, the TH-1 in 1921! To help launch SGI’s new Kern range, SGI brought over one of the designers of Kern equipment, Hans Thommon who trained up Charlie over 3-months to service and repair their new models; DK-RM, DK-RV, DK-RT and K1-RA theodolites.

A couple of years later, Charlie was sent to Switzerland for training on the complete Kern range. Upon his return, Charlie was asked to set up a training school at SGI’s new premises in Bromley, Kent, enabling SGI to become self-sufficient training their own technicians, headed by Charlie Caddock. Charlie didn’t stop there, he carried on to help establish multiple workshops and training courses across the country.

Fast forward 25 years, Charlie and Arthur leave Cadwin to start their own company – Caddock Brothers Survey Equipment Ltd. Originally working out of Charlies house on Shooters Hill, London – Charlie and Arthur would focus on their unrivalled skills in repair and service, eventually growing enough to celebrate the millennium by moving out of Charlies house into a commercial unit in Woolwich, London. They later officially register as a limited company in 2002, following their success Charlie’s son, Simon Caddock, joins the company in the same year. Simon starts by assisting with accounts and helping with servicing and repair, followed by designing Caddbro’s first website, putting Caddbro on the world wide web.

Caddbro becomes an authorised service centre on top of an authorised dealership of Leica Geosystems equipment – supplying and providing their equipment to many major projects in and around London, such as the 2012 Olympics! Growing exponentially with our continued outstanding service and support, has enabled us to re-locate to a new unit based in, Erith, London. We pride ourselves with our double-authorised status and have sent multiple technicians to Switzerland for the latest factory-based training, ensuring that our technicians are trained to the latest standards. Due to this increase in size, we have been able to cover the whole of the south-east to the East of England with our services, with the scope of our services only ever expanding.