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Braby and Co.Ltd Ashton Gate
Image by brizzle born and bred
2011 – Metal factory set to be sold
ONCE known as Fredk.Braby and Co.Ltd. of Ashton, Braby Ltd. always claimed to be UK pioneers in the making of aluminium sheet metal products in 1893.
If true, it means that Bristol had two firsts in the manufacture of metal products – the other being zinc, pioneered in Old Market and Warmley, and ending finally in Avonmouth.
Britannia Zinc closed its factory there in 2003 and now Braby’s, which has been a major south Bristol employer since 1839, has gone into administration.
This well-respected company – a leader in its field – made aluminium and stainless steel silos, tanks and specialist storage for many top names in the food, plastics, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
In 2005 the firm, then owned by a Danish company, was taken over in a management buy-out led by former MD John Lee.
The 53-strong workforce knew that the firm was facing serious problems and matters came to a head just recently when a deal to sell the company fell through.
Now half the employees have been made redundant and the firm, which has been making aluminium grain silos and storage tanks since the 1950s, is in the hands of the receivers.
"Despite being a long-established business and the UK market leader in its field, Braby Ltd was not immune to the global recession which has led to its customer base reducing its spend on large capital items, such as those supplied by the company," said a spokesman.
"The directors had been in discussions with a large European group which it was hoped would provide strategic finance into Braby and secure its future. Unfortunately, these discussions came to an end last week and as the business was unable to meet its financial commitments, the directors made the difficult decision to appoint administrators.
"We hope to be able to keep the business trading in the short term, enabling us to maintain goodwill and eventually to sell it as a going concern."
The company’s last major job was supplying a huge storage silo to GlaxoSmithKline’s for its Ribena soft drinks factory at Coleford, in the Forest of Dean.
If closure happens then it would be a huge blow for South Bristol – and specifically Ashton – which has seen its manufacturing base shrink dramatically over the past 20 or 30 years.
The departure of the labour intensive tobacco, printing and packaging industries leaves just Thomas Ware leather and the revived Ashton Gate brewery (formerly "Sunrise") as reminders of just how much has been lost.
According to an advert from the late 1950s Braby’s, who also made aluminium trays, buckets (or skeps) and kitchen waste containers as well as silos, once had manufacturing units and depots in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Falkirk and Motherwell.
"It seems likely that the biggest use of aluminium will eventually be the building industry and in the US whole skyscrapers are being clad in this metal and fitted with aluminium windows, doors, partitions and other internal fittings," said their 1950s promotional material.
"Both our Bristol and Glasgow works are actively engaged in this field and offer a wide range of standardised and purpose built building products."
Obviously proud to be an early maker of aluminium industrial hollow ware – tanks and vessels, welded steel tanks, structural steelwork and metal plate work – Braby were also on the look out for new uses and new markets.
"A little publicised industry is the breeding of animals under laboratory conditions for medical research and at Ashton Gate we also manufacture "residential flats" for mice, rats and guinea pigs in anodised aluminium," said the company.
"But despite these unconventional uses it is still the everyday equipment – tanks, pipe work, ducting, trays and boxes – which form the real bread and butter of our sheet metal industry. Aluminium might be finding new competition from stainless steel and plastic materials but is more than holding its own in a world where there is still an unsatisfied demand for ingot and semi fabricated light alloys.
"Our Circular Corrugated Outdoor Grain Silos, introduced in 1953, are selling well both at home and in a wide export market," said Braby.
With capacities ranging from 20 to 100 tons, these silos were sent to buyers in a pre fabricated format ready to be erected on the spot by a couple of men over one to three days.
"These silos are helping to meet a worldwide need for decentralised grain storage, something brought about by the ever increasing use of the combine harvester," the firm added.
"Even in the more primitive countries the spotlight is on food production and large number of silos are being sent to many parts of Africa, the Middle East and Central America."
It’s amazing how quickly times have changed with Bristol moving, in one generation, from an industrialised, manufacturing city – one that was busy exporting – to one based on insurance and home based service industries.
And let’s not forget that the city was also once a leading manufacturer of lead products with Capper Pass in Bedminster, Rowe Bros in Canons Marsh and Shedon Bush in Redcliffe being well known names and major employers.
If you have any memories of Braby’s products – or perhaps you were employed there ?
aluminium floor panel
Image by Mr Thinktank
I have taken these photos in order to use them for 3D modeling. I like mapping images onto surfaces, and putting decals onto them. These photos are raw JPEGs which haven’t undergone any treatment at all – no reduction, no re-sizing, no auto contrast or auto levels or anything. Please feel free to grab anything you like and use it for your projects. Some may require cropping and sharpening, colour calibration, etc., but you surely know all that. Best of luck with your projects.
aluminium floor panel
Image by Mr Thinktank
I have taken these photos in order to use them for 3D modeling. I like mapping images onto surfaces, and putting decals onto them. These photos are raw JPEGs which haven’t undergone any treatment at all – no reduction, no re-sizing, no auto contrast or auto levels or anything. Please feel free to grab anything you like and use it for your projects. Some may require cropping and sharpening, colour calibration, etc., but you surely know all that. Best of luck with your projects.