🠈  Ferguson Enterprises  🠊

Ferguson PLC

Ferguson PLC is a multinational manufacturing firm. Their largest subsidiary is US based Ferguson Enterprises which offers plumbing supplies and services. They trade on the London Stock Exchange with the symbol FERG.

The parent company of Ferguson (Wolseley) was created in the late 1800s with offices in Australia and London. They manufactured a variety of things from sheep shearing equipment and the earliest cars to torpedoes and HVAC systems. The site www.wolseley.co.uk has information about the company's operations in the United Kingdom.

Ferguson Showrooms has information on local showrooms. This video from 2018 discusses the size of the firm.

Corporate History

The company was founded by Frederick York Wolseley who developed a sheep sheering machine. Baron Herbert Austin designed and provided parts for the the equipment.

The machine company moved on to the design of automobiles and merged with a maker of self-guided torpedoes. The textile side of the firm diversified into HVAC and finally plumbing.

In 1982, the British company acquired the US based Ferguson Enterprises. Ferguson provided plumbing equipment and services. The British company changed its name to Ferguson in 2017.

I used Wikpedia and the company's history page as the primary source for this merger chain.^1,3

• 1887: Frederick York Wolseley (1837 – 1899) founded the company to make sheep sheering machines with offices in Sydney Australia and London. Baron Herbert Austin created the parts for the machines.
• 1896: Austin began manufacturing cars.
• 1901: Austin's car business merged with Vickers, Sons and Maxim to create Wolseley Motors Limited.
• 1905: Austin had a falling out with Vickers and founded Austin Motor Company.
• 1907: Wolseley sold Cream Separators
• 1915-16: During WWI, the company made munitions and the Webley & Scott flare pistol.
• 1927: Wolseley Motors went into receivership and was acquired by William Morris.
• 1935: Wolseley divested its Australian assets.
• 1936-39: Wolseley manufactured munitions during WWII.
• 1952: Austin Motor Company merged with Morris Motors Limited to create British Motor Corporation (BMC) Limited.
• 1955: Wolseley Sheep Searing Machine Co. Ltd. changed its name to Wolseley Engineering Ltd..
• 1958: Wolseley merged with the engineering firm Geo. H. Hughes.
• 1960: Wolseley-Hughes Group acquired Nu-Way Heating which made HVAC products.
• 1965: Wolseley discontinued its sheep shearing line.
• 1965: Wolseley acquired Granville Controls.
• 1976: Wolseley stopped manufacturing engines.
• 1979: Wolseley acquired the publicly traded John James Group of Companies Limited
• 1982: Wolseley registered as a publicly traded company.
• 1982: Wolsely aquired US based Ferguson which had grown to 76 locations in 11 states.

  History of Ferguson Enterprises

  Ferguson started as a plumbing parts distributor and became the fastest growing division of Wolseley.⁴.

  • 1953: Charles Ferguson, Ralph Lenz, and Johnny Smither founded the company with two locations called Lenz Supply and Smither Supply.
  • 1954: Company opened Crossroads Supply in Alexandria, Va.
  • 1959: David Peebles and company opened Peebles Supply in Hampton, Va.
  • 1969: The managing company adopted the name Ferguson Enterprises, Ltd.
• 1984: Ferguson divested much of its manufacturing business.
• 1992: Wolseley acquired a French based plumbing supplies business called Brossette.
• 2000: Cinven, a London based private equity firm, bought most of Ferguson's manufacturing facilities for £215 million.
• 2019: Ferguson acquired S.W. Anderson which was founded in Farmington, NY in 1955.
• 2019: Ferguson acquired Innovative Soil Solutions.
• 2019: Ferguson acquired Action Plumbing Supply.
• 2019: Ferguson acquired Mission Pipe.
• 2019: Ferguson acquired Kitchen Art.
• 2020: Ferguson acquired Columbia Pipe & Supply based in Chicago.
• 2020: Ferguson acquired Process Instruments & Controls, LLC.

profile page

References:

1. Wikipedia - Ferguson PLC (Drawn 6/5/2020)
2. Wikipedia - Austin Motor Company (Drawn 6/5/2020)
3. Ferguson - Who We Are (Drawn 6/14/2020)
4. Ferguson - A History of Success (Drawn 6/14/2020)

Directory Listings:

• Cochise County - Business: Ferguson Enterprises
• Phoenix Color - Hardware Stores: Ferguson Enterprises
• Pima County - Home and Garden: Ferguson Enterprises
• Yavapai County - Business: Ferguson Enterprises
• Yuma County - Hardware: Ferguson Enterprises
• Boulder Color - Hardware Stores: Ferguson Enterprises
• Colorado Springs Color - Hardware: Ferguson Enterprises
• Denver Color - Plumbing / HVAC: Ferguson Enterprises
• Durango Colorado - Home and Garden: Ferguson Enterprises
• Fort Collins Color - Home & Garden: Ferguson Enterprises
• Garfield Colorado Links - Business: Ferguson Enterprises
• Grand Junction - Home: Ferguson Enterprises
• Pueblo Color - Home: Ferguson Enterprises
• Steamboat Springs Me - Business: Ferguson Enterprises
• Missoula Websites - Construction: Ferguson
• Davis County - Home and Garden: Ferguson Enterprises
• Logan Utah - Hardware: Ferguson Enterprises
• Ogden, Utah - Hardware Stores: Ferguson Enterprises
• Park City, Utah - Home & Garden: Ferguson Enterprises
• Provo Utah - Service: Ferguson - Waterworks
• Saint George - Construction: Ferguson
• Salt Lake Sites - Plumbing: Ferguson - Waterworks
• Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Home and Garden: Ferguson Enterprises

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