Solid Steel

The business known today as Austin Trumanns was founded by two men named Fletcher and Livingstone; the firm began in 1948 as the Eiffel Foundry which at that time manufactured iron castings and was located just yards away from the firm's current site in Moss Lane, Walkden. Employing just 36 staff the business would become the largest jobbing foundry in the North West producing castings of up to 30 tons mainly for the machine tool industry.

With the advent of steel fabrications foundries went into decline and the Eiffel Foundry, anticipating the long term impact, moved into steel stockholding.

Steel was in great demand during the 1960s due to all the rebuilding after the second world war though availability was very tight and steel was sold under licence.

Most stockholders were old established family firms and competitive prices and a quick reliable delivery service was unheard of: normal delivery load times were 4 to 5 days for stock material sold off a standard price list.

The name Trumanns appeared in the 1960s when John Fletcher was searching for a new name for the company. At the time cricketer Freddie Trueman was in fine bowling form whilst brewers Watney Mann was bidding for the Truman's brewery. The fine sounding name Trumanns Steel somehow emerged from these events.

Trumanns' foundations were built on competitive prices and quick reliable delivery. The company published its first independent price list in 1967 undercutting the industry's standard price lists. As a result sales grew significantly over the next six years.

In 1975 John Fletcher retired and his son, also John Fletcher, took over. The steel stockholding industry changed significantly in the 1970s. Large national groups were formed with companies such as British Steel buying up many old established family firms.

The Trumanns Steel Group was now formed as a successor to the original business though remaining an independent steel stockholder.

In 1983 a successful bid was made for James Austin & Son Ltd a Yorkshire business established in 1850 and based in Dewsbury. The acquisition doubled turnover and broadened the product range and the geographical range of sales .

The mid to late 1980s saw steady growth and good economic conditions. In 1985 the company was renamed Austin Trumanns bringing together the names of the two firms.

The acquisition of Chilko Ltd in 1987 saw a move into strip products; an investment programme increased Chilko's capacity eightfold at its factories in St Helens, Knutsford and Manchester.

Meanwhile steel sales continued to grow and in 1988 a sales office was opened near Wolverhampton. A warehouse was also bought and a Midlands division began trading in 1990. John Fletcher died in 1994 and in 1997 John Fletcher junior sold his remaining shares to Murray International Holdings Ltd, a company which had held an interest in the company for many years. Austin Trumanns now moved towards the next century as part of the Murray Metals Group within MIH, a company with interests world-wide which included metals, property, mining, sports and marketing. As a result of these changes the company became part of the largest independent steel stockholder in the UK.

A very competitive steel market in the late 1990s however has lead to a significant refocusing of the business. Austin Trumanns returned to its roots in general steels whilst scaling down its activity in strip products and rebranding itself with a new logo and newly liveried vehicles.

In early 1999 due to restructuring of the group's core activities a profiling service began in new premises in Brighouse, West Yorkshire.

As the world moved into a new millennium Austin Trumanns opened a purpose-built factory in Newry, Northern Ireland providing state of the art warehousing capacity, servicing the whole of Ireland.

Today Austin Trumanns provides a truly national delivery network operating in Lancashire, Yorkshire, the West Midlands, the West Country, the North East, Scotland and Ireland whilst retaining its traditional approachability and local expertise.

Not only does the group offer a huge range of general steels from the smallest rounds, flats, squares and angles it also supplies the largest universal beams and columns along with a vast range of steel plates, sheets and hollow sections, most of which have gone into notable and high profile construction projects.