Guyson Blasts Its Way To 75 Years Old

SKIPTON, U.K. - May 20, 2013 - PRLog -- Guyson International Limited, the UK’s leading industrial finishing equipment manufacturer, is 75 years old this year. Guyson was formed in May 1938 by Robert Thomson (grandfather of the existing owner) in Leeds, West Yorkshire, with investment from his uncle Guyatt. The company name came about with adoption of the first three letters of Guyatt and the last three of Thomson – hence Guyson.

Today the company has grown into a genuine international company with a world-wide customer base for its range of industrial finishing equipment. Equipment that includes robotically controlled blast finishing equipment, often used to shot peen aero engine turbine blades, automated ultrasonic cleaning systems used for a range of precision cleaning applications such as flux removal from PCB’s, and multi-stage tunnel washers regularly used for cleaning high volume automotive parts. Along with these high end finishing products Guyson also manufactures comprehensive ranges of manual blast cleaning cabinets, ultrasonic baths and tanks and industrial spray wash equipment utilised for hundreds of different applications in virtually every sector of the manufacturing spectrum. Alongside these operations, Guyson’s Hose and Couplings division offers a highly diverse range of Hansen and Gromelle couplings and Kaptech hose products for the food, brewing, dairy, gas, medical and pharmaceutical industries in the UK and Irish market place. All a far cry from humble beginnings 75 years ago in Leeds.

In the start-up years of the company, Guyson Industrial Equipment, as it was known, was heavily involved in the selling of garage equipment, such as car jacks, radiator repair products, windscreen demisters and defrosters and the Guyson ‘Handy Clamp’. Then in 1939 it made an agreement with the Hansen Manufacturing Company, USA, to market and distribute Hansen quick-release hose couplings in the UK and Ireland; a distributorship that it holds to this day.

It was through this connection with Hansen that Guyson started manufacturing a small ‘De- Rusting Cabinette’ for the smaller workshop, incorporating a Hansen portable blast gun, to contain dust and debris from sandblasting off old paint and rust.  Its effectiveness was reflected in the slogan used on the adverts for the ‘cabinette’ during the war years : “Hurricane cleaning at Spitfire speed!”. During the 1940’s Guyson moved several times to different premises around Leeds before finally moving out of the city during the early 1950’s to larger premises located at North Avenue in Otley. Here over the next thirty years activities focussed on fulfilling the growing demand for their own manufactured blast finishing products and they expanded the range of blast products to cope with an ever developing post war market.

It was in the early 1950’s that James F. Thomson joined the company, concentrating his activities on growing the export side of the surface finishing equipment business and establishing European and North American distribution networks. Later in 1976 this led to the creation of ‘Guyson Corporation of America’ as a 100% subsidiary to manufacture and supply blast cleaning equipment into the Americas.  Today Guyson Corporation is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of robotically controlled blasting equipment.

In 1964 the ‘Hansen Couplings Division’ was formed as a separate business unit to focus and grow sales of Hansen quick-release hose couplings in the UK and Irish markets, adding Gromelle couplings to their portfolio of products in 1992. Later, in 1997, the Couplings Division moved to a new purpose built site in Guiseley, near Leeds and in 1999 added, through acquisition, Kaptech Hose Limited, a manufacturer of specialist flexible hose assemblies. Both of these businesses were then integrated to form the Guyson Hose & Couplings Division. More recently, 2011 saw the addition of Eaton Hydraulics products to their portfolio.

During the 1980’s the blast finishing division undertook a major expansion of manufacturing capabilities, including relocation of the UK factory to new premises in Skipton, North Yorkshire, its present site, and a significant extension at their USA manufacturing centre.

In 1991 James Thomson succeeded his father as Managing Director of the company.  This was followed in 1994 by the acquisition of Leeds based Marr Engineering, a manufacturer of aqueous degreasing systems, thus leading to an expansion of the Guyson finishing products offered to the surface treatment market. 1998 saw the acquisition of Guyson’s French distributor to form Guyson SA, a new 100% subsidiary selling and distributing Guyson products in the French and Francophone markets. Further expansion was achieved in 2004 with the acquisition and integration of Kerry Ultrasonics Limited, broadening even further the surface treatment processes offered to Guyson’s customer base.

Operational expansion in the Far East followed in 2005, due to increasing Guyson involvement in SE Asia over several years, with a number of high-end hard disk drive cleaning applications.  Thus Guyson Sdn Bhd was formed in Malaysia, with a representative office in Wuxi, China, to provide local technical support for the growing customer base in the Far East markets.

Guyson would like to thank all its valued staff, customers and suppliers, both old and new, in helping achieve this significant date in its history. Now it looks forward to celebrating its anniversary year with numerous staff and customer directed events throughout the regions it supplies and moving towards its next milestone with continuing customer and technology focus across its ranges of industrial finishing and fluid handling products.