Coles and Matthews
of The Butts, Coventry
1887 One of the directors was William Herbert
1887 Alfred Herbert became the manager of Coles and Matthews; began producing machinery for the cycle trade, with guaranteed orders from the Hillman, Herbert and Cooper in which his brother was a partner.
1888 The firm was offered to Alfred Herbert for the price of £2,375. He immediately entered into partnership with a former school friend and fellow apprentice, William Sammons Hubbard, under the name of Herbert and Hubbard, making boilers and general engineering equipment. The fathers of each of the two men provided their sons with a capital of £2,000 each. Initially, production concentrated on ploughing tackle and steam rollers but moved very swiftly to making machine tools and tubing directed at the cycle trade.
By 1894 Herbert had bought out Hubbard, who left the business, which was turned into a limited liability company Alfred Herbert Ltd. Alfred became the managing Director while his older brother was Chairman of the company.