<H1> Seeing things differently for 150 years </H1> |
<H2> Welcome to the family </H2> |
<H2> Serving our customers through the ages </H2> |
<H2> 150 years of commercial success </H2> |
<H2> Helping invent the modern world </H2> |
<H3> There’s always been a close family feel at Weir’s. Of course, the actual Weir family connection ran unbroken from the founding fathers to the start of this century but it’s fair to say that many generations of other families have spent their days in our workshops, offices and factories, sustained by a common goal and shared purpose. Like any family, there have been ups and downs but Weir’s strength has always been its people. Here’s just a small selection of the characters who have shaped a century and a half of achievement and a flavour of the cameo roles played by some famous names through the ages. </H3> |
<H3> George and James Weir opened their engineering consultancy, G & J Weir, in Liverpool in 1871 before moving to Glasgow in 1874. Younger brother, James, was the driving force in the business. He’d been an exceptional apprentice displaying a flair for innovative design. His first patent was for a device called the Hydrokineter that improved circulation in boilers. </H3> |
<H3> In 1902 at the age of just 26, William Weir became managing director of the family firm. He had a sparkling intellect and an international outlook and, on his early travels in America, he met Henry Ford and toured his revolutionary car factory. As well as adopting some of Ford’s methodology, William was a car enthusiast – the second person ever in Scotland to own a car. He even drove in early motor races, including the French Grand Prix. </H3> |
<H3> Kenneth Weir’s time as Chairman stretched from 1955 to 1972. Before that, he’d enjoyed many successful years with the company and had a few colourful tales to tell of his travels on Weir business. </H3> |
<H3> William Weir became the fourth generation of the family to chair the company in 1972. He spent nine challenging years at the helm before briefly stepping aside in 1981. He returned to the role in 1983 to oversee a further 16 years of growth, strategic change and healthy profits. </H3> |
<H3> During the Second World War, many of Weir’s male members of staff were called up to serve in the conflict. </H3> |
<H3> Anthony Grzina joined Warman as a mechanical engineer in 1958 when the company consisted of just 12 people. </H3> |
<H3> Charles Berry was a young boy in school shorts when his father took him to see Weir’s Drysdale factory in Glasgow. Theo Berry had joined Weir as a fitter in 1937 before rising to become Managing Director. </H3> |
<H3> An assortment of very well-known names have had dealings with the Weir Group over the years. </H3> |
<H3> As the business grew in importance, so its leading lights walked the corridors of power. </H3> |
<H3> From our earliest days, Weir has worked closely with customers to provide solutions to their engineering challenges. Our culture of seeing things differently, constant innovation and passion for problem-solving has led the company to become involved in a range of high-profile projects, playing our part in creating a more progressive world. </H3> |
<H3> When G and J Weir moved to Glasgow in 1874, the Clyde was at the centre of the shipbuilding universe. The company’s proximity to the powerhouse of shipping fuelled its early success and customers included all the major shipyards on the Clyde – and owners like Sir William Burrell (the famous collector who left an outstanding legacy to the city of Glasgow). </H3> |
<H3> Weir’s commitment to being there alongside the customer has led to some unusual travel stories. One of the most famous involved J.G. Weir, on a trip to Japan shortly before the First World War. He went by the quick route, which involved taking the Trans Siberian Railway to Port Arthur, or Lushun, in China, and then a ship to Yokohama. </H3> |
<H3> Today, Weir is a very global business with operations in more than sixty countries from Canada to Australia and Chile to Russia. We have a service centre within 200km of every major mine in the world and are often co-located with customers on their sites. While the focus of the business is now on mining and infrastructure markets the passion for solving customer challenges remains constant. </H3> |
<H3> For the first 75 of Weir’s 150 years, the company was private. From its early days as a partnership between two brothers through to opening it up to new shareholders drawn from family and key members of the management team, the business grew gradually. By the time the business became a public company with a stock market flotation in 1946, it had expanded magnificently on the back of the golden age of steam and managed to survive two world wars. It had also become something of a dynasty, and as the reins passed from father to son, so the scope of its operations and the scale of its performance continued on an upward trajectory. </H3> |
<H3> Seeing things differently has often meant the Weir management team asking big questions about the business and its future direction. Should the business move into new markets? If so, should it build from scratch, find a partner or acquire an established business? And indeed, acquisitions have been a big part of Weir’s ongoing success. </H3> |
<H3> The Weir name hasn’t just been a watchword for high quality products through the years, it’s been closely associated with invention and innovation. From our very earliest days, our engineers have been responsible for the creation of a host of leading-edge technologies that redefined what was possible in their time. </H3> |
<H3> Arguably, the direct-acting, steam-driven, reciprocating pump is the cornerstone of Weir’s initial success. Patented in 1881, James Weir’s ingenuous design transformed the efficiency of the steam engine and became the industry standard. </H3> |
<H3> James Weir’s patented closed feed heating system further improved efficiency and fuel consumption in triple expansion steam engines. </H3> |
<H3> Early steamships had a big problem. As well as carrying coal to heat the boiler, they needed fresh water to boil to create steam. All that weight made them inefficient and reduced their range. Though early steamship designers had enjoyed modest success with their seawater boilers, James Weir’s evaporator was the first truly reliable device of its kind. </H3> |
<H3> The Weir name has always been closely associated with pumps and its pumps have been deployed in so many situations all over the world. Not surprisingly, the oil industry has been a major customer. </H3> |
<H3> In 1926, an investment was made in the Cierva Autogiro Company, a Spanish pioneer of a type of early helicopter. J.G. Weir had seen a demonstration of the device at Farnborough in 1925 and encouraged Sir Robert Kindersley and others to invest. The company itself took a stake in 1933 and J.G. Weir frequently commuted to work at Cathcart in his autogiro. Unfortunately, the Second World War saw helicopter development concentrated in the USA and the autogiro concept consigned to history. </H3> |
<H3> Weir’s foray into the construction market is a tale of mixed success. After the First World War, the company launched its first attempt at applying engineering principles to architecture. The company’s revolutionary approach to pre-fabrication wasn’t particularly well received by the traditional housebuilding trades but was, in many ways the blueprint for modern housebuilding. </H3> |
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