plc type public limited company traded as lse gkn industry automotive aerospace founded 1759 ; 257 years ago 1759 dowlais wales headquarters redditch worcestershire england key people michael turner cbe chairman nigel stein ceo products vehicle and aircraft components revenue 7 231 million 2015 1 operating income 323 million 2015 1 net income 202 million 2015 1 number of employees 55 000 2016 2 divisions gkn driveline gkn aerospace gkn land systems gkn powder metallurgy website www.gkn.com gkn plc is a british multinational automotive and aerospace components company headquartered in redditch worcestershire . the company was formerly known as guest keen and nettlefolds and can trace its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the industrial revolution . gkn is listed on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 100 index . contents 1 history 1.1 1759 to 1900 1.2 1900 to 1966 1.2.1 guest keen baldwins 1.2.2 fasteners 1.2.3 crankshafts 1.2.4 pressed steel wheels 1.3 nationalisation of steel 1.4 1966 to 1991 1.4.1 driveline 1.4.2 gkn steel 1.5 1991 present 2 operations 3 references 4 bibliography 5 external links history edit 1759 to 1900 edit main article dowlais ironworks dowlais ironworks by george childs 1840 the origins of gkn lie in the founding of the dowlais ironworks in the village of dowlais merthyr tydfil wales by thomas lewis and isaac wilkinson . john guest was appointed manager of the works in 1767 having moved from broseley . 3 in 1786 john guest was succeeded by his son thomas guest who formed the dowlais iron company with his son in law william taitt . guest introduced many innovations and the works prospered . 4 under guest s leadership alongside his manager john evans the dowlais ironworks gained the reputation of being one of the world s great industrial concerns . 5 though the bessemer process was licensed in 1856 nine years of detailed planning and project management were needed before the first steel was produced . the company thrived with its new cost effective production methods forming alliances with the consett iron company and krupp . 5 by 1857 g.t. clark and william menelaus his manager had constructed the goat mill the world s most powerful rolling mill . 6 by the mid 1860s clark s reforms had borne fruit in renewed profitability . clark delegated day to day management to menelaus his trusteeship terminating in 1864 when ownership passed to sir ivor guest . however clark continued to direct policy in particular building a new plant at the docks at cardiff and vetoing a joint stock company . he formally retired in 1897 . 5 1900 to 1966 edit on 9 july 1900 the dowlais iron company and arthur keen s patent nut and bolt company merged to form guest keen & co. ltd. 7 nettlefolds limited a leading manufacturer of fasteners had been established in smethwick west midlands in 1854 and was acquired in 1902 leading to the change of name to guest keen and nettlefolds gkn . 7 8 in 1920 john lysaght and co. was acquired . 9 guest keen baldwins edit steel production remained at the core of the company but under increasing profit margin pressure . resultantly in 1930 the company amalgamated its steel production business with that of rival baldwins to form guest keen baldwins which now held 10 baldwins coke ovens at margam ; blast furnaces and steel melting shop at margam ; steel works and rolling mills at port talbot ; blast furnaces at briton ferry ; lime stone quarry at cornelly gkn dowlais iron and steel works ; cardiff iron and steel works ; coke ovens at cwmbran ; limestone and silica quarries in 1935 the company demolished the cardiff works to construct a new modern production facility on the same site funded by an issue of debentures . 11 due to a resultant global shortage of pig iron in 1937 the company fired up the single remaining blast furnace at dowlais . 12 all of the sites were heavily bombed by the nazi luftwaffe during the war and the required investment meant that all of these assets were nationalised as part of the 1951 iron and steel act resultantly becoming part of the iron and steel corporation of great britain . 13 however gkn were still highly reliant on the supply of good quality steel and so in 1954 negotiated from the asset realisation company the repurchase of key assets from isc which were renamed guest keen iron and steel co. in 1961 the company s name changed again to gkn steel company . 14 fasteners edit display showing products of guest keen & nettlefold ltd. in decorative form . these mergers heralded half a century in which gkn became a major manufacturer of screws nuts bolts and other fasteners . the company reflected the vertical integration fashionable at the time embracing activities from coal and ore extraction and iron and steel making to manufacturing finished goods . crankshafts edit after the first world war it became apparent that britain was likely to follow france and more recently the united states in developing a large scale auto industry . 15 gkn acquired another fastener manufacturer f. w. cotterill ltd. in 1919 cotterill already owned a subsidiary named j. w. garrington which specialised in forgings and it was the forgings produced at the garrington darlaston plant later supplemented by a large plant at bromsgrove that enabled gkn to become a major supplier of crankshafts connecting rods half shafts and numerous smaller forged components to the uk auto industry during and beyond the period of massive expansion between the two world wars . 15 pressed steel wheels edit in 1920 gkn purchased steel company john lysaght and their subsidiary joseph sankey and sons ltd. 15 after training as an engineer sankey founded a major tea tray producer . a pioneer motorist he became personal friends with herbert austin resultantly becoming a supplier of sheet steel components to the industry . 15 by 1914 the company s customers for sheet steel bodies included austin daimler humber rover star and argyll . 15 as a result of complaints from motor manufacturers about the propensity of the then wooden wheels on early cars to disintegrate on the slightest encounter with any roadside kerb 15 using his experience from tea trays sankey developed an alternate pressed steel wheel . 15 production started in 1908 with customers including herbert austin and later william morris . 15 in addition to his original factory at bilston a new plant was established near wellington shropshire which was devoted to wheel production . 15 by the time the business was acquired by gkn the plant was supplying wheels to many uk manufacturers . by 1969 the highly automated wellington plant was turning out over 5 million wheels a year at a maximum rate of approximately 30 000 per day . 15 the business also undertook other automotive related works including supplying the chassis for the triumph herald and its derivatives . 15 they were also at this time building the versatile gkn developed gkn fv432 armoured personnel carrier . 15 nationalisation of steel edit the postwar government nationalised the steel industry under iron and steel corporation of great britain . the act of parliament of 1949 took effect in february 1951 . diversification in 1951 a new subsidiary blade research & development brd was formed at aldridge staffordshire to produce aero engine turbine blades . following a fall in demand for turbine blades in the late 1950s the brd factory switched to producing constant velocity joints and driveshafts for vehicles . 16 in 1955 britain s steel industry was de nationalised by a new government but that was to last only ten years . 1966 to 1991 edit at the end of april 1965 the recently elected labour government published a white paper proposing the nationalisation of 90 per cent by output of britain s steel industry . 17 gkn steel was transferred to public ownership at the end of july 1967 . 18 driveline edit beginning a programme of diversification into the automotive field in 1966 gkn bought brd s much larger competitor birfield ltd 19 20 which held the great bulk of the british market for cvjs constant velocity joints and was a company that since 1938 had incorporated both the sheffield based laycock engineering later best known as a postwar overdrive manufacturer and hardy spicer limited of birmingham england also a manufacturer of constant velocity joints . 15 historically such joints had few applications even following the improved design proposed by alfred h. rzeppa in 1936 . however in 1959 alec issigonis had developed the revolutionary mini motor car that relied on the hardy spicer joints for its front wheel drive technology . the massive expansion in the exploitation of front wheel drive in the 1970s and 1980s led to the acquisition of other similar businesses and a 43 % share of the world market by 2002 . 7 on the death of founder tony vandervell in 1967 gkn acquired the lucrative maidenhead based vandervell bearing manufacturer that was at the time already exporting more than 50 % of its output to overseas vehicle manufacturers . 15 this was part of a larger trend for gkn that during this period under its managing director raymond brookes was working to reduce its dependence on uk auto maker customers at a time when the domestic industry was seen to be stumbling in response to bewildering government interference and fiscal short sightedness with british new car registrations in the first four months of 1969 a massive 33 % down on the corresponding period of the previous year . 15 as a result of the large number of mergers abram games was commissioned to developed a new corporate identity in 1969 when the distinctive angular gkn symbol was created and the new company colours of blue and white introduced . 21 in 1974 gkn acquired kirkstall forge engineering a manufacturer of truck axles in leeds . 22 during the 1980s gkn sought to invest its earnings from constant velocity joints in developing other nascent technologies . however little success attended these efforts and in 1991 the company resolved to abandon further research and to redivert its development efforts towards its constant velocity joint business in which it was facing increasing competition from japan . gkn steel edit by 1968 gkn steel had recreated its downline business and then started to build its upline business through aggressive building of a steel stockholding business . in 1972 it acquired firth cleveland a hot and cold rolled strip business with a downline in sintered products reinforcement steels wire fasteners and garage equipment . in 1973 it exchanged the remaining assets at dowlais along with 30 million in cash to the nationalised british steel corporation 23 in return for the previously nationalised brymbo steelworks . 24 after acquiring steel stockholding competitor miles druce and co by 1974 the company had created a full integrated steel production and manufacturing business . however by the late 1980s with extensive japanese competition in both the axle and constant velocity joint business the company started selling off its steel and fasteners businesses . by 1991 it had disposed of all of the assets within these two business lines . this included the closure of its iconic bilston factory in the west midlands in 1989 . the factory buildings were demolished soon after but the offices built in the late 1950s were not demolished until 1995 . 25 1991 present edit having disposed of its steel production asset in 1991 the company renamed itself gkn plc focused then solely on military vehicles aerospace and industrial services . in 1994 it acquired the helicopter manufacturing business of westland aircraft . 7 in 1998 the armoured vehicle business was sold to alvis plc 7 and subsequently incorporated into alvis vickers ltd. in july 2000 finmeccanica and gkn