Vickers Printing Machinery
Part of Vickers plc
1947 Vickers acquired George Mann and Co.
1965 Acquired R. W. Crabtree and Sons.
1966 Vickers acquired Waite and Saville; Crabtree-Vickers was established as Britain's foremost printing machinery manufacturer.[1]
By 1966 the Printing Machinery Group consisted of[2]:
1969 Also acquired Algraphy of Orpington, maker of litho plates and chemicals[3] which was combined with Howson as Howson-Algraphy.
1977 Crabtree-Vickers Leeds was formed and was the only British manufacturer of a range of sheet and web fed offset printing presses and the home of Crabtree-Vickers newspress [4]
1982 Crabtree-Vickers moved into Europe's newest printing machinery facility.[5]
1984 Crabtree Vickers Gateshead achieved increased business; Crabtree Vickers Leeds, after substantial rationalisation, returned to profit; increased demand for Inpac Automation's products; Vickers Dawson had a better response to sales effort.[6]
1986 The Crabtree Vickers Gateshead business was acquired by its management; it was renamed Crabtree of Gateshead[7]
1989 Sold Howson Algraphy to Du Pont which made complementary products[8]
1993 The Leeds business was incorporated as Crabtree Printing Machinery.[9]