Month: January 2018

A number of the Scottish implement and machine makers became companies limited by guarantee during their years of operation and trading. This transition, made under the companies Acts, involved the transfer of a business to a new legal structure, directors and shareholders.

Ben. Reid & Co., Aberdeen, was one such companies that made this transition to a company limited by guarantee. It did so in 1900, and Ben. Reid & Co. Ltd, was incorporated on 26 April 1900. It was a well-known Aberdeen firm of agricultural implement makers, seedsmen and nurseyemn, already having been in business in the mid 1840s, and exhibiting at the Highland Show from 1858.

The company’s Memorandum & Articles of Association provide insights into the transfer of the business and the activities that the new one would undertake. It states:

“Objects of the company established are:
1. To purchase and acquire (1) from Benjamin Reid & Company, seedsmen, nurserymen and florists in Aberdeen, and William Gibson and Alexander Hay, seedsmen and nurserymen there, the individual partners of and Trustees for that firm, the heritable property, leases, stocks in trade, plant, machinery, implements, working tools and appliances, funiture, goodwill of the business, and gooder assets of that firm, on 31st October 1899, as specified in the Minute of Agreement hereinafter referred to; and (2) from Benjamin Reid & Company, engineers and agricultural implement makers, of Bon Accord Works, Aberdeen, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of and trustees for that firm (whose business has been carried on as a concern separate form that of the firm first above mentioned and under different conditions of partnership), the heritable properties, lease, stock in trade, plant, machinery, working tools and appliances, furniture, goodwill of business, patent and other trade rights, trade marks and trade names and other assets of that firm, on 31st October 1899, as specified in the Minute of Agreement hereinafter referred to, and for the purposes above narrated to adopt and to cary into effect the Minute of Agreement above referred to, being a Minute of Agreement dayted the 25th day of April, 1900, entered into by (first), the said firm of Benjamin Reid & Company, seedsmen, nurserymen, and florists, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of that firm, as individuals and as Trustees for it, and (second) the said firm of Benjamin Reid & Company, engineers and agricultural implement makers, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of that firm, as individuals and as Trustees for it, on the one part and Robert Gordon Wilson, architect in Aberdeen, as Trustee, acting provisionally for this company, on the other part, this company taking the place of the purchaser, thereunder, a copy of which Minute of Agreement is set forth in the schedule of the company’s Articles of Association, and alos to enter into any new agreement with the said two firms of Benjamin Reid & Company or either of them, and the partners and Trustees for these firms or either of them, as such parties and Trustees and also as individuals. …
1. To carry on all or any of the businesses of wholesale and retail seed merchants, nurserymen, arboculturists, horticulturists, florists, fruiterers, farmers, graziers, live stock breeders, gardeners, foresters, seed growers, grain merchants, dealers in and producers and manufacturers of manures and feeding stuffs, and producers of all kinds of farm, nursery and garden produce.
2. To carry on all or any of the businesses of agricultural and general engineers, locomotive builders, bridge builders, agricultural and horticultural builders and implement makers, manufacturers of gardeners’ and foresters’ tools, implements and machinery, and of motor cars and other vehicles,a nd of gas, oil and electric engines, and of wagons and steam road rollers, and of salt and sand distributors for tramways, and of all kinds of fencing, wire-netting and wirework, and of all other kinds of machinery plant. tools, instruments and appliances, cartwrights, millwrights, wheelwrights, founders, moulders, workers, fitters and finishers or iron, brass, copper, and any other metals, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, painters, decorators, general builders, architects and draftsmen. …”
The capital of the company was £50,000, divided into 15,000 preferred shares of £1 each, and 35,000 ordinary shares of £1 each. The company had power to increase or reduce the capital.
The company continued in business for a few years thereafter. The company made an extraordinary resolution to wind up the company on 4 February 1907. The final winding up meeting was held on 10 May 1909.

The photographs were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June 2015.

A well-known Banffshire implement and machine maker was Auchinachie & Simpson, Mid Street, Keith. It was already undertaking its business at that address by 1868; it continued to be associated with that address until at least the First World War. After 1920 the company, as Auchinachie & Simpson Ltd, was located in Keith, Morayshire. However, it passed a resolution to voluntarily wind up the company on 12 September 1923. It held its final winding up meeting on 25 February 1927.

The company undertook a number of trades. From the mid 1870s it was an agricultural implement maker, general implement dealer, machinery broker and dealer, mechanical engineer, smith, and smith and farrier. Its manufactures included ploughs, harrows, seed sowing machines, grubbers and manure sowers. It was also an agent for a number of key Scottish and English makers, which allowed it to sell a wider range of manufactures, including mowers, reapers and binders, which had a huge impact on north-eastern farming. Its agencies included those for W. N. Nicholson & Son, Newark on Trent, Walter A. Wood, London, Macdonald Brothers, Portsoy, Harrison, McGregor, Leigh, Lancashire. D. M. Osborne & Co., London.

The company was a forward-looking one, advertising and promoting its manufactures at the Highland Show from 1876 onwards until 1923. It was awarded a silver medal for its collection by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1876. It entered its manufactures at a number of the Society’s high profile trials, including the trial for three tined-grubbers in 1885, grass seed sowing machines in 1887 and manure distributors in 1899. It was an advertiser in the North British Agriculturist from March 1870 until July 1911.

We learn a good deal about the company when it became incorporated in May 1919. A prospectus, issued in May 1919 outlines how the company developed, and its aspirations for the future:

“This company has been formed for the purpose of acquiring and carrying on the business of Auchinachie & Simpson, agricultural implement makers and engineers, Keith.
The business of Auchinachie & Simpson is one of the oldest of its kind in the north of Scotland, having been established in 1866, since which date it has been continuously carried on with success. The firm has a wide connection in the north of Scotland and elsewhere. For some years immediately precedung the War, it was developing a connection in the Colonies, and there is every reason to expect that this trade can be resumed and further developed.
Mr James Auchinachie, who has been connected with the business for the last 53 years, and who for the last ten years has been a sole proprietor of the firm, is vendor to the promoters.
It has been decided to convert the firm into a limited company with the view of securing additional capital for the development of the business, for the erection of additional premises if and when necessary, and also with the view to stimulating interest in a local industry.
The vendor has made an offer to sell to the promoters his whole assets, including the goodwill of the business, for the sum of £2300, which will be open for acceptance for three months from the 10th of March 1919.
The business will be taken over with right to profits since the 10th of March 1919. The company will acquire the firm’s property in Mid Keith, held in feu (£300), the whole machinery, fittings, and plant, utensils, office furniture, and others connected with the business (£612 5 6), the whole stock in trade (£864 2 7). output between the date of the above offer (10th March) and date of valuation (20th march) less expenses £145), patent rights, trade marks, designs, patterns, valued by promoters (£178 11 11), and goodwill (£200).
The business in the past has been profitable and successful and that the vendor’s sole reason for disposal is advancing age. Looking to the engineering reputation of the firm acquired and maintained for many years, the numbers of orders on hand, and the large demand for agricultural implements both at home and abroad, shareholders may reasonably expect a profitable return on the capital employed.
The 76 shareholders included a cross-section of the local community, including a manufacturing chemist, plasterer, cattle dealer, farmers, a chartered accountant, grocer, wooden manufacturer, bank agent, solicitor, sadler, hairdresser, collector of taxes, advocate, bookseller, lecturer in agriculturer and a veterinary surgeon. Most of them – some 45 – were from Keith; few others were from outwit north-east Scotland.

The first a.g.m. of the limited company showed that it was making mixed progress. The business was carried out under the management of Mr Robert Boyd, who had been in the employment of the firm for over 20 years. However, two key figures died: James Auchinachie and James McWilliam. The company adopted the policy of equipping the company with the best plant available, so as to provide for economical production and a greatly increased output. New premises were erected inballoch Road, Leith, at a cost of around £2500. New plant was also purchased. The firm’s reputation for high quality continued to be fully continued. The productions of the company continued to be held in high regard by the agricultural community and the company had a large number of orders in hand.
The fortunes of the company changed and by September 1921 the company was making a significant loss (£924). There were further losses in following years, such as 1923, which led the company to resolve to wind up.

Auchinachie & Simpson: a key maker in Keith, and north-east Scotland.

The photographs of the hand drawn byre scraper were taken at the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, August 2014.