Builders merchants of Northumberland
of Appleby Castle, Appleby, Cumbria (1974)
1924 Company incorporated
1968 Began a process of expansion through acquisition of companies as diversification from the original building supplies business.
1970 Acquired some of the fixed assets and stock of the merchanting division of Henry Foster Building Products[1]
1972 Acquired N. F. Ramsay and Co, architectural ironmongers of Newcastle, and Frost and Murkett, builders merchants of Nottingham[2]
1973 Issue of shares to the public by ICFC[3]
Acquired shares in Liner Concrete Machinery Co
1975 Acquired Wright-Scriven[4]
1976 Acquired Allan Kennedy and Co[5]
1977 Acquired Hindson Print Group[6]
1978 Acquired Harkwell, to extend the specialist printing activities[7]
1980 Acquired Surrey Fine Art Press[8]
1981 Acquired Pendy
1981 Acquired Gosforth Industrial Holdings, the remnant of Swan Hunter after the ship building activities were nationalised[9]
1983 Acquired Morplan
By 1983 Ferguson International Holdings plc had 37 operating subsidiaries in 6 divisions[10]:
- Building supplies
- Printing and packaging
- Engineering
- Civil engineering
- Giftware
- Ship repairing
The Building Supplies division had increased profits. The other main division, printing and packaging, also showed good performance. Brims, the civil engineering business, had decided not to enter the private house building sector. Smiths Shiprepairers North Shields Ltd had a year of stable profit.
1986 Sold the building supplies division to Bowater in order to concentrate on printing and packaging[11]. Sold Allan Kennedy and Co to TWIL and Hodgetts and Mole to Greengate Woodturning (1940), a subsidiary of the Chillington Corporation[12]
1987 Acquired Berisfords Group, maker of ribbons and labels[13]
1994 Acquired Elswick plc; the group consisted of 3 divisions:[14]
- Labels
- Hangers
- Communications Components
1999 Reduction in capital approved[15]
Company wound up.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, Aug 20, 1970
- ↑ The Times Aug 01, 1972
- ↑ The Times, Feb 15, 1973
- ↑ The Times, Aug 21, 197
- ↑ The Times, Jun 15, 1976
- ↑ The Times, Sep 08, 1977
- ↑ The Times Jul 14, 1978
- ↑ The Times, Nov 11, 1980
- ↑ The Times, Dec 03, 1980
- ↑ 1983 annual report
- ↑ The Times, February 14, 1986
- ↑ The Times, September 17, 1986
- ↑ The Times March 17, 1987
- ↑ 1994 Annual report
- ↑ The Times, December 23, 1999