Private company
George Cohen Sons and Company
British scrap metal merchant
George Cohen, Sons and Company was a scrap metal merchant with offices in Commercial Road, London. The company was founded by George Henry Cohen (d.1890) as Messrs. George Cohen & Co. in 1834 and changed its name to George Cohen, Sons and Co. in 1883 on the appointment of Michael Cohen, son of the founder.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
Overview
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George Cohen, Sons and Company was a scrap metal merchant with offices in Commercial Road, London. The company was founded by George Henry Cohen (d.1890) as Messrs. George Cohen & Co. in 1834 and changed its name to George Cohen, Sons and Co. in 1883 on the appointment of Michael Cohen, son of the founder. After the First World War the company won a number of large contracts to dispose of surplus munitions including "400,000 tons of high explosives and other shells". The company also engaged in demolition work, with projects including the towers of Crystal Palace, which had survived the great fire, the Dome of Discovery and Skylon at the Festival of Britain, and London's tram system. In 1940 the company moved its head offices to Hammersmith.2
Products and brands
The following companies were members of the '600 Group' at some time. This information was obtained from the company's annual reports published in The Times newspaper.
Raw Materials Division
George Cohen and Armstrong Disposal Corporation, formed June 1923 jointly with Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co. to dispose of government surplus stock. The liquidation process ended in 1927.
Pollock Brown & Co. Ltd., scrap merchants, reported 1957
Westbourne Park Coal & Iron Co. Ltd., reported 1957
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Southall & Hayes Coal & Iron Co. Ltd., reported 1957
George Cohen Australia Scrap Co., registered 1960
Proler Cohen, scrap processing, Willesden, set up 1966. Run by 600 Ferrous Fragmentisers Ltd. The Proler process, licensed from the Proler Steel Corporation of Houston, Texas, was not immediately successful but was working by the end of 1969.
Steel Foundry Division
K & L Steelfounders And Engineers Limited., Letchworth, founded 1915 as Kryn & Lahy, acquired May 1928, manufacturers of Jones Mobile and Railway Cranes. A new factory at Halstead, Essex opened 1958. Company renamed as Jones Cranes Limited in 1968.
K. & L. subsidiary in Toronto, opened 1953
T. C. Jones & Co. Limited, Wood Lane, structural engineers (noted in 1947). Factory at Treorchy, Glamorganshire built 1947. Reinforcement works, Neasden, opened Dec 1955.
Dunlop & Ranken, Leeds, steel merchants, acquired Jan 1956, sold to British Steel Corporation 1980
New London Electron Works Ltd., powder metallurgy, noted 1953
Western Metallurgical Industries Ltd., Neath, noted 1953
F. J. Edwards Ltd., London, acquired 1966
Barnes & Bell, Glasgow, steel stockholders, acquired 1967
Jones Reinforcement, spun off from T. C. Jones in 1969
Machinery Division
Campbell Gas Engine Co. Ltd., acquired 1928
Messrs. Estler Brothers, Ltd., London, metal workers, acquired 1936
Works, Hebburn-on-Tyne, noted 1947
Colchester Lathe Co., acquired 1954
Colchester Machinery Corporation Ltd., Toronto, mentioned 1957, shut down 1961
Colchester Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, set up 1958
Gamet Products Ltd., Colchester, precision bearings, reported 1956
Midgley and Sutcliffe Ltd., drilling machines, acquired 1954
Selson Machine Tool Co., Ltd., London NW10, mentioned 1953-1957
Henry Osman & Co. Ltd., drainage engineers, reported 1956-7
Browett, Lindley & Co, compressors (acquired 1929, noted 1947)
Coborn, engines, noted 1947
Metalclad, Limited, Neath and Stanningley, woodworking machinery, reported 1947; iron foundry at Morriston noted 1953
Machinery Works, Kingsbury, noted 1947
F. Burnerd & Co., Ltd., (est. c. 1913), precision chucks, noted 1953
Machine Tool Works, Stockport, acquired 1958
G. Beaton & Son Ltd., vehicle component manufacturers, acquired 1958
Richmond Machine Tool Co. Ltd., mentioned 1963
W. E. Sykes, machine tools, acquired 1966
George Cohen Machinery, mentioned in The Times in 1967 as 'the largest plant hire firm in the country'
John A. Dick Holdings, owners of British Hoist & Crane Co., acquired 1967
Six Hundred South Africa (Pty), Johannesburg, expanded 1967
Jones Cranes Limited formed in 1938, from crane business of K. & L. Steelfounders. Closed in the 1990s. Successful revival in 2005 by a Sussex-based private engineering company.
Dickson (Engineering), acquired 1970
After the Thorn merger, 1970
Six Hundred Metal Holdings, joint-owned by Thorn Electrical Industries, set up 1970
T. S. Harrison & Sons, lathes, acquired 1971
Startrite Engineering, acquired 1981
F. Pratt Engineering, lathe chucks, acquired 1981
600 Fanuc Robotics, Colchester, partnership with Fujitsu, 1983
Industrial Distribution Group of Clausing Corp., acquired 1985
Electrox lasers, acquired 1986 [1]
600 Machine Tools, 600 Electrox Laser, and 600 Technologies divisions formed in 2006 [2]
Colchester-Harrison, formed 2006 [3]
Ealing Electro Optics plc, acquired 1988 [4]
Metal Muncher, USA, 2000 [5]
From Wikipedia’s article on George Cohen, Sons and Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
Links
- WikipediaGeorge Cohen, Sons and Company
- WikidataQ5538032
Sources
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