Sears Engineering
1960 Public company incorporated
1960 Issue of preferences shares in the main parts of the Sears group, the British Shoe Corporation Ltd and a new company Sears Engineering Ltd, both of which were subsidiaries of Sears Holdings[1]. The Sears Engineering company consisted of Haverton Holdings, which owned Furness Shipbuilding Co and controlled Bentley Engineering Co as well as other subsidiaries:
- Wildt Mellor Bromley Ltd
- Mellor, Bromley and Co Ltd
- William Cotton Ltd
- George Blackburn and Sons Ltd
- Bentley Machine Development Co Ltd
- T. Grieve and Company Ltd
- W. Hammond and Sons (Bearded Needles) Ltd
- Economic Stampings Ltd
- George Woodcock and Sons Ltd
- Bentley Martin Ground Form Cutter Co.
- Bentley Knitting Machine Organisation Inc
- Pegson Ltd of Coalville
- Samuel Pegg and Son Ltd
- Brown and Green Ltd of Luton.
- Mellor Bromley (Air Conditioning) Ltd
- Clarendon Engineering Co Ltd
- Parmeko Ltd
- Alexander Findlay and Co Ltd
- Furness Shipbuilding Co Ltd
- Shaw and McInnes Ltd
- Peter Johnston and Co (South Shields) Ltd
- Haverton Holdings Ltd
together with 11 insignificant subsidiaries.
1966 Acquired Scottish Motor Traction Co, including Shaw and Kilburn and S. M. T. Sales and Service Co, from Sears Holdings; Furness Shipbuilding Co was transferred to Sears but not Peter Johnston or Shaw and McInnes[2]
1967 Sears had disposed of the shipbuilding activities[3].
1967 Vehicle distributors SMT and Shaw and Kilburn had become subsidiaries of Sears Engineering Ltd[4]
1974 Downturn in the market for knitting machinery hit Bentley's profits[5]
By 1983 activities were the vehicle distribution businesses and a "rump of engineering interests"[6]