Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 166,627 pages of information and 246,591 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Thomas Robinson Group

From Graces Guide

of Rochdale, a mini-conglomerate covering engineering, food and woodworking machinery. It is not clear what the connection is with Thomas Robinson and Son but presume the 2 companies were connected, both being based in Rochdale.

of Kilburn, Derbyshire

1985 Graham Rudd (brother of Nigel Rudd) acquired 12.5 percent of the shares in Thomas Robinson, engineering group of Rochdale; Williams Holdings had 7.5 percent[1]

1986 Acquired Wadkin Leicester, wood working machinery.[2]

1986 Thomas Robinson, the Rochdale engineering group took over the Vicars Group ; Vicars employed 250 at Newton-le-Willows making processing machinery for biscuit cake and wafer industries[3]

1986 The various acquisitions had been integrated[4]

1987 Acquired Derek B. Haigh, designer and installer of services for electrical, mechanical and instrumentation contracts.[5]. Acquired W. J. Furse and Co and Crown House Zest from Coloroll and Wincanton Electrical Services from Unigate[6]

1988 Acquired Calder Woodworking Machinery[7]. After failing to acquire John Crowther, bought W. A. Boulting, a Cheshire electrical contractor[8]

1988 Spooner Industries was a member of the fast expanding Thomas Robinson Process Engineering Group of companies who are world leaders in food engineering and are set on significant growth.[9]

1989 Acquired RFA (Penistone)[10]

1991 Sold the contracting division, based in Derby, to East Midlands Electricity

1991 Cargo Control, distributor of motor vehicles, reversed into the motor distribution business, which was most of the Thomas Robinson Group; it covered nine dealerships. The company would become European Motor Holdings[11]. Nevertheless Thomas Robinson was making large losses.

1992 Acquired by BM Group plc of Chippenham

See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. The Times Dec. 31, 1985
  2. Newcastle Journal 04 February 1986
  3. Rochdale Observer 24 May 1986
  4. The Times Aug. 22, 1986
  5. The Times June 11, 1987
  6. The Times Aug. 26, 1987
  7. The Times Apr. 6, 1988
  8. The Times July 5, 1988
  9. Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 15 December 1988
  10. The Times Sept. 12, 1989
  11. The Times Oct. 4, 1991