British Rollmakers Corporation
of Weston Road, Crewe
a holding company with subsidiaries engaged in the manufacture of cast iron and steel rolls for the ferrous metal and other metal industries.
1942 Company established by merging 3 rollmaking companies: R. B. Tennent Limited of Coatbridge; C. Akrill and Co Limited of West Bromwich; and Thomas Perry and Son Limited of Bilston[1].
1946 The rollmaking interests of two more companies, Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss Limited and John Lysaght Limited, both of Wolverhampton, were acquired.
1947 a new company, Midland Rollmakers Limited, was formed to build a new plant on a green-field site at Crewe. The new plant came into production in 1951. Work was gradually transferred to Crewe from the West Bromwich and Wolverhampton plants, which were closed.
1952 Acquired Miller and Co Ltd, makers of rolls for other users than steelworks.
1954 Share issue to fund expansion[2].
1959 Acquired Richard Lloyd and Co[3] as the basis for a tools division, as a diversification from making rolls.
1969 Acquired Johnsons Rolls Limited of West Bromwich.
1974 Davy International, the other large maker of rolls in the UK, having purchased 29% of British Rollmakers, made a take-over offer which was rejected by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission[4].
1977 Johnson and Firth Brown acquired Davy International's shares in British Rollmakers and then bid for the rest of the company[5].