1956 The company was formed to acquire companies mainly in family ownership, to allow the owners to continue to have a role in the company whilst avoiding the effect of death duty. Placing of 45 percent of the shares in the company on the Stock Exchange; the company had 2 main subsidiaries - one owning iron ore properties near Scunthorpe (Norinco Ltd); the other was the maker of a specialised label printing machine (Tickopres Ltd)[1]
1956 Acquired Bramigk and Co, maker of machinery for the chocolate and baking trades; and Neil and Spencer, maker of dry-cleaning machinery[2]
1957 Acquired C. E. C. (carrying on business as City Electrical), electrical engineers and contractors[3]; acquired Union Fibres and John Collums, importers and exporters of fibres and waste products[4], and Relay Vision and 5 of its associated companies[5], John Tinsley, maker of colliery winding engines, and Wescros Ltd, scrap metal merchants and ship-breakers[6]
1958 Acquired Autotype Co, makers of coated paper for photogravure engravers[7]
1959 Acquired Hygena Ltd, maker of kitchen furniture, and Temperature Ltd together with Island Craft Ltd which were under the same management and, together, were the largest maker of air conditioning units outside the USA[8]. Acquired Jensen Motors Ltd[9], and S. Maw Son and Sons[10]
1960 Acquired Blythswood Shipbuilding Co[11] and Rotiss-O-Mat[12] and Lantigen (England), maker of vaccines[13]
1960 In order to allow Norcros to concentrate on its larger subsidiaries, a new public company, Southcros Ltd, was incorporated and floated, to handle the smaller companies in the portfolio and others which would have resulted in Norcros having too large a concentration in one industry[14]. Southcros acquired H. J. Reece and Sons Ltd and Aric Ltd and its wholly owned subsidiary B. and R. Patents Ltd. Norcros acquired Fisher Clark, manufacturers and printers of tags, labels, etc[15], and Harold Wood and Sons[16], a haulage company. Launched a second associated public company, Scotcros, to handle Scottish businesses[17]
1961 The company consisted of 5 main groups[18]:
- Engineering
- Pharmaceutical products, domestic supplies and food processing equipment
- Specialised papers, printing and labelling
- Commercial transport, coach building, repairs and distribution
- Raw materials
Acquired Sig Wrapping Machines[19] and 51 percent of Bulk Carriers; also acquired Lowton Metals Ltd, Aluminium Ingot Makers Ltd[20]
1962 Rights issue, partly to pay for acquisition of Dow-Mac (Products), maker of concrete products[21]
1964 Sold Relay Vision to Electronic Rentals and General Holdings[22]. Also sold Union Fibres[23]
1965 Sold Harold Wood and Sons of Heckmondwicke, to Pickfords part of the state-owned Transport Holding Company[24]
1972 Edward Bates and Sons bought the 30 percent interest in Scotcros held by the company[25]
1974 Acquired Crittall-Hope Engineering whose window interests were a natural extension of the company's interests; the other activities, in cranes, etc, were attractive because of their specialist nature[26]
1979 Acquired Johnson Richards, tile makers[27]
1988 Sold Butterley Engineering to Haden MacLellan Holdings[28], Dow-Mac Concrete to Costain, the Canadian Bulk Carriers; [29]also sold UBM Motors, dealers in Ford cars, to Evans Halshaw [30]
1995 Sold Crosby Sarek and Crosby Kitchens to Spring Ram Corporation[31]
1995 Also sold Temperature and Security Computing Services. Agreed to sell Cego to Laird[32]
c.1999 delisted from the Stock Market
2007 Regained stock market listing; building products and printing group; principal businesses were Triton Showers and Johnson Tiles[33]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, Jun 09, 1956
- ↑ The Times, Sep 01, 1956
- ↑ The Times, Feb 08, 1957
- ↑ The Times, Apr 05, 1957
- ↑ The Times, Apr 12, 1957
- ↑ The Times, Apr 12, 1957
- ↑ The Times, Mar 22, 1958
- ↑ The Times, Jan 31, 1959
- ↑ The Times, Jun 18, 1959
- ↑ The Times, Sep 19, 1959
- ↑ The Times, Mar 26, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Jun 13, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Jun 30, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Sep 19, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Oct 28, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Nov 21, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Dec 08, 1960
- ↑ The Times, Mar 30, 1961
- ↑ The Times, Jul 04, 1961
- ↑ The Times, Mar 29, 1962
- ↑ The Times, Feb 13, 1962
- ↑ The Times, Jul 14, 1964
- ↑ The Times, Mar 22, 1965
- ↑ The Times, Sep 07, 1965
- ↑ The Times, Sep 09, 1972
- ↑ The Times, Feb 13, 1974
- ↑ The Times, Jan 23, 1980
- ↑ The Times, December 02, 1988
- ↑ The Times, June 08, 1988
- ↑ The Times, July 06, 1988
- ↑ The Times August 09, 1995
- ↑ The Times, July 12, 1995
- ↑ The Times, June 20, 2008
- The Times, Mar 30, 1961