Records of Fletcher & Stewart Ltd, sugar machine manufacturers, Derby, England

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Scope and Content

Minutes 1979-1982
Company history 1972

Administrative / Biographical History

Fletcher & Stewart Ltd , sugar manufacturers, was formed in 1958 though the merger of George Fletcher & Sons Ltd , sugar machine engineers, Derby, and Duncan Stewart & Co Ltd , sugar machine manufacturers, Glasgow, Scotland.

George Fletcher & Co was founded by George Fletcher in 1830 in London, England, to produce sugar refining machine for the West Indies. The firm opened a works in 1862 in Derby by the new Derby-Birmingham railway, and later relocated the company's head office to the new site. The firm passed to George Fletcher, jnr, on his father's death and then to his 6 children following his own death in 1897. However, the company was not divided equally, with one daughter getting a two-sevenths share. She was subsequently taken to court by her sisters and the judge ruled that the company be sold. The firm was purchased by family members in 1909 and incorporated as George Fletcher & Co Ltd. In 1956 , Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co Ltd, sugar producers and merchants, London, acquired the company.

Duncan Stewart & Co was founded in Anderston, Glasgow, in the 1830s as an engineering firm. By the 1860s the company was producing textile and sugar machinery having expanded the business by taking over a cotton mill in Bridgetown, Glasgow. One of the company's chief achievements came in 1871, when Duncan Stewart patented the hydraulic mill that allowed more juice to be extracted from sugar cane. When Stewart died in 1902, the company was taken over by his brother-in-law, William Beardmore, and the company moved into steel plant manufacture. In 1939, the company was acquired by Davy & United Engineering Co Ltd and the company concentrated on steel production. In 1958 , the sugar side of the business was sold to Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co Ltd.

Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co Ltd merged the two companies to form Fletcher & Stewart Ltd in 1958. In c1988 Fletcher & Stewart Ltd acquired Smith Mirrlees, sugar machinery manufacturers, Glasgow, and changed its name to Fletcher Smith Ltd in 1990 . In 2002, Fletcher Smith Ltd was still trading as architectural and technical consultants.

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