Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 59 (1988) by M. L. Cohen

Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc

Charlton House Cirencester Rd. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 8ER United Kingdom Telephone: ( 44) 1242-521361 Fax: ( 44) 1242-581470 Web site: http://www.spiraxsarcoengineering.com

Public Company Incorporated: 1952 as Spirax-Sarco Ltd. Employees: 3,998 Sales: £296.4 million ($492.9 million) (2002) Stock Exchanges: London Ticker Symbol: SPX NAIC: 332911 Industrial Valve Manufacturing; 332912 Fluid Power Valve and Hose Fitting Manufacturing; 332919 Other Metal Valve and Pipe Fitting Manufacturing; 333911 Pump and Pumping Equipment Manufacturing; 333912 Air and Gas Compressor Manufacturing; 333913 Measuring and Dispensing Pump Manufacturing; 333996 Fluid Power Pump and Motor Manufacturing

Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc is the world's leading manufacturer of steam traps, the number one producer of peristaltic pumps (through subsidiary Watson-Marlow Bredel) and a leading manufacturer of flowmeters, temperature and pressure controls, and other apparatus and equipment used for controlling steam. Spirax-Sarco's products are used in virtually every industry, with applications including heating and air-conditioning systems; oil refinery and chemical processing; in the pharmaceutical and foods industries, and for the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other materials. Spirax-Sarco encompasses seven manufacturing facilities worldwide, although its primary manufacturing operations take place in its Cheltenham, England home. The company is present in 32 countries, through 42 sales offices. Exports have long accounted for the majority of the group's sales, and represented some 80 percent of 2002 revenues of nearly £300 million. Spirax-Sarco has continued to make small acquisitions in the 2000s, such as its 2002 purchases of Australia-based Marford Engineering, a specialist in water treatment systems, and Italy's AMPE, which makes pneumatic and electronic instruments and actuators. The company has also boosted its international sales network. Quoted on the London Stock Exchange since the late 1950s, Spirax-Sarco is led by CEO Marcus Steel.

Building up Steam in the 19th Century

The Industrial Revolution and the adaptation of steam power to a variety of industrial uses opened up vast areas of entrepreneurial development, as steady advances in technology required new engineering solutions and products. The use of steam—a powerful, clean source of heat—introduced a need for a device to drain off water condensation while retaining the steam itself. The resulting device was called the steam trap, and one of the earliest manufacturers was a British firm called Sanders, Rehders & Co. That company was formed to make and sell steam traps and other steam power-related parts, devices, and equipment in London in 1888.

Sarco (from Sanders Rehders & Co.), as the company and its products became known, developed into a leading engineered steam products group. In 1908, the company set up a sales office in New York City, sending Clement Wells there as the company's representative. Sarco quickly developed into a full-fledged company; when imports of steam traps became too expensive during and after World War I, Wells transformed Sarco Inc. into a manufacturing operation, opening a plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Wells then extended the company's production to include thermostats and other temperature regulators, all the while sticking to the company's focus on steam.

Before long, Sarco U.S. became a primary manufacturer of Sarco-branded steam traps and apparatus, starting export operations to the European continent—and to the United Kingdom. Sanders, Rehders by this time had reduced its role to that of a selling agent for Sarco products, changing its name to Sarco Thermostats and moving to Cheltenham. At the same time, Sarco opened its first foreign subsidiary, in Toronto, Canada, in 1926. That company was led by Eric Wells, brother of Clement Wells. At first operated as a sales office, the Canadian business set up its own manufacturing facility in Clairmont, Ontario, in 1941.

The Depression once again made foreign shipments too costly—this time, however, its was the U.S.-based business that sought a manufacturing partner overseas. In 1932, HA Smith and others, including later company Chairman Lionel Northcroft, established a new business in London to manufacture the Sarco steam traps, but under a different brand name: Spirax.

The Spirax Manufacturing Co. remained in London for the first half of the 1930s, then, after acquiring Sarco Thermostats, moved to Cheltenham in 1937. That purchase gave the company the right to use the Sarco brand name as well. In the years leading up to World War II, the British company acquired a second branded line of steam traps, Ogden, after purchasing the English company Ogden & Cunliffe. By then, Spirax had been granted the rights to trade in the United Kingdom (excepting Canada), Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, while the U.S.-based Sarco reserved the rest of the world's market for itself.