Colin Fromm is an artisan pipemaker from Chatham, Kent who began making pipes with the Invicta Briars brand in 1974, established with Colin Leeson's purchase of a long-standing pipe repair business. Fromm soon after concentrated on the Castleford brand, however. In 2002, when J. B. Russell, Inc., who had purchased the Charatan name from Dunhill in 1988, went out of business, that name was re-purchased by Dunhill, who brought Colin Fromm on board to manage the production of the line. Leeson and Fromm had already been producing freehand pipes for Dunhill in Chatham, and so the choice to make Colin Fromm General Manager of Production was obvious.