Reid Brothers UK have been in the game a long time and 2018 marked a special occasion for the company. In 2018, we reached our sesquicentennial anniversary, celebrating 150 years in trading. — making us older than Irn-Bru.
As a small company based in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, we specialise in industrial strapping, banding and load securing equipment. Over the years we have built up a diverse group of customers within a wide range of industries including offshore, construction, manufacturing, and logistics, to name a few.
It’s an exciting time for our small company which started back in 1868 with just 2 men to its name. The founders of Reid Brothers, Joseph Reid and William Hutchison began the company trading as engineering and colliery furnishers, reaching out to miners in the Scottish trade. Becoming an established business just 12 years later, the company began trading internationally and became well known worldwide, with several offices opening up in Johannesburg, South Africa and throughout various cities in Australia. Reid Brothers began to thrive internationally, however, it was the South African office where the business started to boom.
With this popularity and growth of business in South Africa, the Johannesburg branch changed its name to Reid Brothers South Africa in 1918 which then, in turn, operated a number of subsidiary companies across Southern Africa. Despite being a smaller version of the Glasgow branch, Reid Brothers then went on to become well-known suppliers of machinery to engineers and allied trades, becoming a public company.
However, following this success, years later in 1969 the South African office was acquired by an alternative company, African Oxygen Ltd., which is still running to this day as Sub-Saharan Africa’s market leader in gases and welding products. With most business taking place in Johannesburg, Afrox purchased the entire ordinary shares of the company and each South African branch, leaving just the original division of Glasgow left to deal with its trade.
Sadly, when original founder William Hutchison passed away, his shares of Reid Brothers were passed onto Joseph Reid. Then following Joseph’s passing, shares were distributed among his family, Joseph Reid Jr,, James Melross Reid and John Ormiston, who were already directors and shareholders within the company, so it was left in safe hands.
Almost 120 years after its original starting point, Mr Reid, the descendant of the company, decided to put Reid Brothers up for sale and this is where Barnbury Enterprises stepped in and attained the business. The trading name continued as part of Barnbury Enterprises, but with such a long and illustrious history, the name Reid Brothers did not change, allowing the company to hold on to that history and trade alongside parent company Thorne and Derrick.
Following this takeover, 27 years later in 2015 saw a management buyout. Our Managing Director, Danny Rooney, who had been working with the company for 30 years, since he was an office junior, bought out Reid Brothers. UK Steel Enterprise helped by investing a six-figure funding package to back this management buyout of Reid Brothers Int. Ltd., with Danny being the sole shareholder and that is where we are today.
Growing from strength to strength, we have recently launched our brand new website, displaying our products and services in a catalogue style fashion, as well as launching our own SureFast product line. This progressive move has placed Reid Brothers UK firmly within the market as leaders in plastic strapping, stainless steel banding and load securing products.
