Catalogue description Records of IMI [Imperial Metal Industries] PLC and subsidiary companies.

Records of Imperial Metal Industries [IMI] PLC. Records of IMI Ltd are few, the collection being made up predominantly of records relating to the subsidiary companies of The Wolverhampton Metal Company, itself a subsidiary of IMI Ltd. The collection includes records of; IMI Ltd, Birmingham; The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd, Wednesfield; James Bridge Copper Works Ltd, Walsall; IMI Refiners Ltd, Walsall; F W Parsons, metal manufacturer and refiner, Birmingham; Barton Williams & Co (Birmingham) Ltd, metal refiners; N L Hayes (Metals), Gloucester, non-ferrous metal, iron and steel merchants; Wolverhampton Metal Co (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney; Elkington Copper Refiners Ltd, Bloxwich; G Methven & Co Ltd, metal manufacturer, New Zealand. 1865-1973 with gaps.

Imperial Chemical Industries [ICI], the parent company of Imperial Metal Industries [IMI], was formed in 1926 when the four largest chemical companies in the UK merged. The four were 'Brunner, Mond & Company Ltd', 'Nobel Industries Ltd', 'British Dyestuffs Corporation Ltd', and 'United Alkali Company Ltd'. The merger provided the new company - ICI - with the scale to compete in the world market. Of particular interest to this collection are Nobel Industries Ltd, a successful explosives concern and ammunition conglomerate, established in Scotland in 1870 by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the annual Nobel Prizes. Nobel Industries Ltd had been joined after the First World War by the Birmingham based metal manufacturer 'Kynoch Ltd' who had been Nobel's chief competitor. Kynoch Ltd began in 1862 when George Kynoch, a Scottish entrepreneur, opened a percussion cap factory at Witton in Birmingham. By 1876 he had developed the Kynoch Press and began as in-house printer of sporting and military cartridge wrappers. By 1881 'Kynochs' was Britain's largest ammunition manufacturing company and had diversified into a brass rolling mill and a patent lamp business. In 1884 George Kynoch sold the metal works, including the Press, though remained on as Managing Director of 'Kynoch Ltd'. Once Nobel Industries, including Kynoch Ltd, had merged to form ICI, the original Kynoch factory in Witton became the head office and principal manufacturing base of the 'ICI Metals Division'. Leading up to the Second World War, ICI Metals Division was the UK's largest supplier of copper and copper alloys. In 1962 the company was renamed 'Imperial Metal Industries Ltd' [IMI]. In March 1966 IMI Ltd was listed on the stock exchange at a value of £62m but parent company ICI retained the majority holding. IMI remained the holding company for ICI's non-ferrous metal interests, one of the largest producers in Europe of wrought non-ferrous metals other than aluminium. In 1967 IMI Ltd bought 'The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd' in Wednesfield, a producer of non-ferrous ingots and billets and owner of several subsidiaries in the metal refining industry. Of particular interest to IMI Ltd was the copper refining business 'James Bridge Copper Works Ltd' in Walsall, which had been bought by The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd in 1919, at a time when it was mainly a washing plant of the old jig type with relatively small furnaces. Both The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd and later IMI Ltd, invested heavily in the site and in 1971 it became IMI Refiners Ltd. Further companies owned by The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd, and whose records are in this collection, included 'F W Parsons' a metal manufacturer and refiner from Birmingham, acquired in 1945; 'Barton Williams & Co (Birmingham) Ltd', a metal refiners partially acquired by The Wolverhampton Metal Company Ltd in 1948 with the remaining shares taken over in 1951; 'Hayes Metals (Gloucester) Ltd', a ferrous and non-ferrous metal merchants bought in 1949; and 'The Wolverhampton Metal Company (Australia) Pty Ltd' set up in Sydney in 1950. In 1968 IMI Ltd bought Elkington Copper Refiners Ltd, Goscote Works, Walsall. Already a subsidiary of 'Mercury Securities,' Elkington Copper Refiners Ltd had originated from the Birmingham based Elkington & Co, who were famous for their method of electro-deposition of silver on metal. In 1978 ICI sold its remaining interest making IMI a fully independent public company, 'IMI PLC'. In 2003 IMI PLC moved from the Witton site to new head quarters close to Birmingham Airport. Today they provide products in fluid controls and retail dispense.

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