Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers
of Sheffield
1919 Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers Ltd was registered 8 May 1919 with a capital of £100.[1] The intent was to form a holding company to "centralise and coordinate six existing and well established concerns", including Thomas Turner and Co. Under the provisions of the scheme, each company was to carry on its existing business in its own name under its existing Board. Nothing is reported of this amalgamation until 1922 by which time the capital was £100,000 in preference shares and £250,000 in ordinary shares. A J Hobson was a director.[2]
c1922 Five well-known cutlery firms - Thomas Turner and Co, Needham, Veall and Tyzack, Lockwood Brothers, Joseph Elliot and Sons and Southern and Richardson Ltd. - amalgamated to form a company named the Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers.
1925 Since the formation of the company the trade passed through very bad times, and in 1924 the court sanctioned a reduction of the ordinary capital. The report for the year 1924, which is stated that the trade depression continued during that period, and the trading of the associated companies was further seriously affected by a dispute in the industry. The result of the year's operations shows an adverse balance of £485 15s. 8d., and the directors were still unable to recommend a dividend on the preference shares. The report added that after a lifetime spent in the cutlery industry. Mr. Joseph Greaves Elliot decided to relinquish the chairmanship of the company and to retire from the board, though he had placed his services at the disposal of the board in an advisory capacity. Sir Walter R. Preston and Mr. A. W. Rippon became directors, and the former agreed to accept the office of chairman. [3]