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The History of Qualcast Lawnmowers
A piece of British gardening history!
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Qualcast is an absolute classic British lawnmower brand
- if you wish to buy a cylinder mower, then these lawnmowers
are very best you can buy. These are the types of machines
that will last generations if looked after properly, and
there are many mowers bought in the 1950s and 60s that are
still going strong.
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Qualcast was a company which, early in its development, set out to acquire other faltering lawn-mower companies, expand them technically and commercially, thus forming a massive, near monopolistic mower enterprise in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century.
For example, in 1938, Qualcast acquired Follows and Bate Limited of Gordon, Manchester, and completely restructured the firm according to Qualcast's way of doing business. In contrast, the Australian Qualcast company was a benign enterprise that seemed content to produce quality mowers, without an aggressive anti-American competitiveness, or corporate takeover strategy, propelling their business activities.
Qualcast ceased lawn-mower production in England during
the Second World War to concentrate instead on munitions
production, but production of lawn mowers resumed immediately
after the cessation of hostilities and by 1945 Qualcast
had become the largest manufacturer of lawn mowers in Britain.
In 1951, Qualcast further expanded by purchasing a large
factory at Sunnyhill, which was previously occupied by Clark
Aircraft Products Ltd., and moved all of the lawn mower
production to that site. In 1958, Qualcast acquired the
H. Kaufmann Group of Companies, makers of the well-known
Suffolk Punch lawn mowers and in 1965 Qualcast purchased
Charles H. Pugh Ltd., Birmingham, the makers of the famous
'Atco' brand of lawn mower.
A further corporate merger took
place in 1967 when Qualcast joined Birmid Industries to
become the Birmid Qualcast Group, which by 1970 had produced
the very popular electric lawn mower, 'The Concorde'. Another
identity change occurred in 1986, when Qualcast Lawn Mowers
Ltd became Qualcast Garden Products, and in 1988 the Birmid
Qualcast Group became part of Blue Circle Industries. In
1990, Blue Circle amalgamated Atco and Qualcast into one
massive Garden Products Division.
The old Qualcast Derby factory was eventually closed in
July 1991, and all manufacture and administration of the
lawn mower was transferred to Atco's site at Stowmarket
in Suffolk. |
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