W & T Avery Ltd. (later GEC Avery) was a British manufacturer of

weighing machine A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from a ...

s. The company was founded in the early 18th century and took the name W & T Avery in 1818. Having been taken over by GEC in 1979 the company was later renamed into GEC-Avery. The company became

Avery Berkel Avery Berkel is a brand and major manufacturer of commercial weighing machines owned by Illinois Tool Works. Avery Berkel initially started in 1993 when the British conglomerate General Electric Company combined their GEC Avery (formerly W & T ...

in 1993 when GEC acquired the Dutch company Berkel. After the take over by Weigh-Tronix in 2000 the company was again renamed to be called

Avery Weigh-Tronix Avery Weigh-Tronix is a subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works specialising in industrial weighing machines. Its headquarters stands on the site of the Soho Foundry in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. The company additionally has a United State ...

with Avery Berkel continuing to operate as a brand. The company is based in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

, West Midlands, United Kingdom.

History

Leominster Museum - 2014-07-11 - Andy Mabbett - 16

The undocumented origin of the company goes back to 1730 when James Ford established the business in Digbeth. On Joseph Balden the then owner's death in 1813 William and Thomas Avery took over his scalemaking business and in 1818 renamed it W & T Avery. The business rapidly expanded and in 1885 they owned three factories: the Atlas Works in West Bromwich, the Mill Lane Works in Birmingham and the Moat Lane Works in Digbeth. In 1891 the business became a limited company with a board of directors and in 1894 the shares were quoted on the London Stock Exchange. In 1895 the company bought the legendary

Soho Foundry Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tr ...

in Smethwick, a former steam engine factory owned by James Watt & Co. In 1897 the move was complete and the steam engine business was gradually converted to pure manufacture of weighing machines. The turn of the century was marked by managing director William Hipkins' determined efforts in broadening the renown of the Avery brand and transforming the business into a specialist manufacturer of weighing machines. By 1914 the company occupied an area of 32,000m² and had some 3000 employees. In the inter-war period the growth continued with the addition of specialised shops for cast parts, enamel paints and weighbridge assembly and the product range diversified into counting machines, testing machines, automatic packing machines and petrol pumps. During the second world war the company also produced various types of heavy guns. At that time the site underwent severe damage from parachute mines and incendiary bombs, some of many which landed on the town of Smethwick. From 1931 to 1973 the company occupied the 18th-century

Middlesex Sessions House The former Middlesex Sessions House or the Old Sessions House is a large building on Clerkenwell Green in the London Borough of Islington in London, England, built in 1780 as the courthouse for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions. It is a Grade II* ...

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

as its headquarters. Changes in weighing machine technology after World War II led to the closure of the foundry, the introduction of

load cell A load cell converts a force such as tension, compression, pressure, or torque into an electrical signal that can be measured and standardized. It is a force transducer. As the force applied to the load cell increases, the electrical signal change ...

s and electronic weighing with the simultaneous gradual disappearance of purely mechanical devices. After almost a century of national and international expansion the company was taken over by GEC in 1979. Keith Hodgkinson, managing director at the time, completed the turn-around from mechanical to electronic weighing with a complete overhaul of the product range of retail scales and industrial platform scales. In 1993 GEC took over the Dutch-based company Berkel and the

name was introduced. GEC Avery continued to operate as a part of the Avery Berkel Group. In 2000, the business was in turn acquired by the US-American company Weigh-Tronix to form

continued to operate as a brand of the newly created company with GEC Avery being absorbed by the Avery Berkel brand. In 2015, the Avery museum, which had existed for almost nine decades, was closed and the collection dispersed.

Acquisitions

The company has made several large acquisition over the years that help contribute to its large size. *1895

James Watt & Co Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engl ...

*1899

Parnall & Sons Parnall & Sons Ltd was a shop and ship fitting and aircraft component manufacturer in Bristol, England. The original company was set up in 1820 by William Parnall in Narrow Wine Street, initially making weights and measures, before expanding int ...

Ltd. *1920/1928 Southall and Smith Ltd. *1920 Saml. Denison & Son Ltd. (name changed to Avery-Denison Ltd. in 1970) *1925 Oertling Ltd. *1931 The Tan Sad Chair Co. (1931) Ltd. *1932 Avery-Hardoll Ltd. *1953/1976 Pump Maintenance Ltd. *1959 Geo Driver & Son Ltd.; merged in 1966 with Southall and Smith Ltd. to form Driver Southall Ltd. *1968 Stanton Redcroft Ltd. *1973 Telomex Ltd. At some point, the company owned Haseley Manor, in Warwickshire.

References

Literature

* Ernest Pendarves Leigh-Bennett, ''Weighing the World: an impression after two hundred years of the past history of an English house of business, and of its present activities and influence throughout the world of weighing, 1730-1930'', Birmingham, 1930 * Walter Keith Vernon Gale, ''Soho Foundry'', Birmingham, 1948 *

Monopolies and Mergers Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under UK competition law, competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competiti ...

, ''The General Electric Company Limited and Averys Limited: a report on the proposed merger'', London, 1979, * L H Broadbent, "The Avery Business (1730-1918)", W & T Avery, Birmingham, 1949

External links

www.averyweigh-tronix.com
Corporate website
Avery
Chronology of the Avery company
The Soho Foundry
History of the company's main site
The General Electric Company Limited and Averys Limited
Chapter One of ''The General Electric Company Limited and Averys Limited: A Report on the Proposed Merger''
Averys Limited
Chapter Four of ''The General Electric Company Limited and Averys Limited: A Report on the Proposed Merger''

A list of manufacturers whose names appears on British weights