Fonds RC0205 - General Steel Wares Limited fonds

In October 1927, five companies (McClary Manufacturing Company, London, Ontario; Sheet Metal Products Company of Canada Limited, Toronto; Thomas Davidson Manufacturing Company Limited, Montreal; E. T. Wright Limited, Hamilton, Ontario; and A. Aubry et fils Limitée, Montreal) merged to form General Steel Wares (GSW) Limited with John C. Newman becoming the company’s first President. The newly formed company, producing housewares and appliances, became a significant Canadian manufacturer. Expansion soon followed, notably, in 1920 with the acquisition of the Happy Thought Foundry Company of Brantford, Ontario, and in 1958 with the purchase of the Easy Washing Machine Company Limited.

Beatty Brothers Limited, a metal farm implement company established in 1873 at Fergus, Ontario, gained a controlling interest in GSW in 1962 through a reverse takeover, thereby merging these two companies under the GSW name. The company changed significantly at this time under the direction of Ralph M. Barford and Robert A. Stevens. Among other acquisitions by GSW between 1965 and 1975 was the Moffatt Company in Canada, a large appliance manufacturer, in 1971. Negotiations between GSW and Canadian General Electric Company Limited resulted in 1976 in the formation of the joint venture Canadian Appliance Manufacturing Company (CAMCO). More recent acquisitions have included the American Water Heater Company in 2002.