American Machine and Foundry Co
c.1900 Company founded
Manufacturer of Standard cigarette making machines
1919 Set up a United Kingdom subsidiary.
Standard machines started to be installed in increasing numbers in the factories of Imperial Tobacco Co's branches, gradually superseding the earlier Bonsack machines.
At first the Standard machines were imported from America; later many of those used by Imperial were manufactured under licence by Brecknell, Munro and Rogers Ltd.
1920 Imperial and British American Tobacco together acquired a majority of the shares in Brecknell, whose main business was the manufacture of machinery for the tobacco industry.
1927 The company was in creditor's liquidation[1]
1928 Name changed to Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd.
1950s: Maker of leisure-time products for the consumer, and atomic and electromechanical equipment for industry and defence[2]
1959 Formation of AMF International based in London
1960 American Machine and Foundry Company established a factory at Whitstable to assembler the special automatic equipment required for the new sport of ten-pin bowling.[3]
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" [4]
1965 AMF International was making tobacco machinery at Andover (AMF Legg) and Radcliffe-on-Trent (AMF Hamblin) and filter and evaporators at Reading[5]
1967 AMF International acquired part of the Shorts Brothers and Harland plant in Belfast to make pressure vessels for LPG storage[6]
1968 AMF International had British subsidiaries [7]:
- 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[8]
1970 Cuno Filter Division made filtration equipment at Reading[9]
1985 Parent company AMF was acquired through hostile takeover by Minstar Inc., a Minneapolis-based holding company, which then sold off various divisions.[10]
1992 AMF International was put into liquidation[11]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The London Gazette 8 July 1927
- ↑ The Times, Mar 23, 1960
- ↑ Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald 30 July 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
- Monopolies Commission report 1961