Who we are
THE EARLY YEARS
It all started over 100 years ago, in 1919. With just £20 in savings, Frederick D. Edwards opened for business from a small premises in south London.
He began by importing vacuum pumps from Germany, France and the US and selling them to research laboratories in the UK. In 1919, laboratories were almost the sole customers of vacuum equipment. Edwards began making his own pumps in the late 1920s, but it was the start of the second world war when the manufacture of vacuum pumps took on a critical significance to the nation’s war effort. Vacuum pumps became strategically important as they were needed for atomic energy research, cathode ray tubes, and coatings on submarine periscopes.
The post war growth years of the 1950s corresponded with an explosion of uses for vacuum technology. The electronic boom began and vacuum pumps were needed for the manufacture of radio valves, television tubes, capacitors and telescopes. Edwards was at the forefront of these applications, shaping the breakthrough in consumer electronics technology.
Today, as a vital part of the Atlas Copco Group, Edwards now serves a $7 billion-plus market.
THE EARLY YEARS
How many items in your house are made using vacuum?
Edwards products and processes enable the development and production of a vast array of products we use in everyday life.
THE FARMER’S FAVOURITE AXE
There was a farmer who had to clear a paddock of a diseased tree. He sent his farm hand to get his favourite axe.
The farm hand returned with it and asked why that particular axe?
” Let me tell you about that axe”, he replied.
” I’ve had that axe for thirty years. It’s a quality axe. In my youth I had to save up to buy it. I’ve chopped many a tree for firewood which kept the family warm during those tough, early years. When a tree fell and pinned my son to the ground I was able to cut him out with that axe. When we needed to build the new cow shed that axe was the most useful tool I had.”
” Ah, that’s a lovely axe”, says the farm hand.
” Mind you,” says the farmer, “it has had five handles and four heads.”
And that, is what a great brand is all about.
