AMF International
UK division of AMF Inc
1959 Company established to serve the new UK market for ten-pin bowling[1]
1950s: Maker of leisure-time products for the consumer, and atomic and electromechanical equipment for industry and defence[2]
1960 American Machine and Foundry Company established a factory at Whitstable to assemble the special automatic equipment required for the new sport of ten-pin bowling.[3]
1960 Formed a JV company with Henry Simon to make flour milling and handling machinery. A research laboratory was under construction near London, and a factory to make bowling alley equipment at Whitstable[4]
1960 AMF acquired Robert Legg, maker of tobacco machinery, which became AMF Legg
1961 AMF acquired D. K. Hamblin and Co, maker of tobacco machinery, which became AMF Hamblin
1962 Frederick Braby Group made evaporators for the Maxim division of AMF International which supplied them for the "Transvaal Castle" [5]
1965 AMF International was making tobacco machinery at Andover (AMF Legg) and Radcliffe-on-Trent (AMF Hamblin) and filter and evaporators at Reading[6]
1967 AMF International acquired part of the Shorts Brothers and Harland plant in Belfast to make pressure vessels for LPG storage[7]
1968 AMF International had British subsidiaries [8]:
- AMF Beaird - Belfast-made gas equipment
- Manufacturing bowling equipment at Whitstable
- AMF Legg making tobacco machinery at Andover
- Making electrical products at Oxford
- Making Industrial and Food Machinery
- Making Recreational equipment
1970 Acquired Venner; the US parent also made time switches[9]
1970 Cuno Filter Division made filtration equipment at Reading[10]
1985 Parent company AMF was acquired through hostile takeover by Minstar Inc., a Minneapolis-based holding company, which then sold off various divisions.[11]
Management buyout of some parts of the company, formed GBE International
1992 AMF International was put into liquidation[12]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times Feb. 27, 1959
- ↑ The Times, Mar 23, 1960
- ↑ Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald 30 July 1960
- ↑ The Times Oct. 6, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Jan 18, 1962
- ↑ The Times, Oct 29, 1965
- ↑ The Times, Apr 25, 1967
- ↑ The Times, Oct 10, 1968
- ↑ The Times, Mar 05, 1970
- ↑ The Times Oct 09, 1970
- ↑ Wikipedia
- ↑ The Times, January 24, 1992