The Fforestfach History Website
Work - Mettoy
| Aerial - Mettoy's two factories December 1961 | Satellite - September 8th 2006 |
|---|
The 2006 satellite image shows 4 Fforestfach Mettoy buildings - the S,W, P and Q factories; built in that order.
| 1934: | Mr. Philip Ullman and Mr. Arthur Katz both Jewish, came from the German toy making firm Tipp & Co. They moved to Britain where they laid the foundations of Mettoy in Northampton England. |
|---|---|
| 1936: | The Company now had premises in Stimson Avenue with a workforce of roughly 50 people. |
| 1937: | Larger premises were needed so they moved to Harleston Road. |
| 1939: | WWII brought a temporary closure of toy manufacturing. At this point they were entrusted to make many essential tin-plated products for the war effort. |
| 1944: | The Ministry of Supply selected Fforestfach Swansea factory, with 28,000 sq. ft. for further production. |
| 1948: | Mettoy started to build a 115,000 sq. ft. new modern factory at Fforestfach, for at least two reasons; the area had a ready source of raw materials and a need for high employment. |
| 1949: | The factory was officially opened by King George VI on 2nd April. |
| 1952: | The factory was enlarged and now totalled 200,000 sq. ft. of working space, where they now housed the production and commercial sections. After this came the installation of the high-capacity injection-moulding machinery. |
| 1952: | Swansea now became the official company headquarters. |
| 1953: | Playcraft Toys Ltd. was now fully owned by Mettoy Co. Ltd. |
| 1955: | Introduction of the die-cast precision made and scale model toy brand named "Corgi". |
| 1956: | Playcraft Toys Ltd. launches the Corgi range with a Corgi Model Club newsletter later that year. |
| 1957: | Corgi catalogues started to be distributed in this year. |
The late 1950’s to middle of 1960’s, there was a rise in the range of Products Mettoy offered: e.g. Wembley vinyl balls, Playcraft Railways (electric and clockwork), Vapour Trails model aircrafts and educational toys were made from polythene.
| 1961: | In December there over 1,000 plus employees at its Queensway, Fforestfach factory and they became one of the largest toy manufactures in Britain, with a factory space of over 240,000 sq. feet. |
|---|---|
| 1961: | Head Staff were: Mr. Philip Ullman (chairman), Mr. Arthur Katz (managing director), Henry Ullman “Son of chairman” (director), Mr. Howard Fairbairn (director), Mr. Adam Heaton (works director) and Mr. Frank Varnals (sales director). |
| 1963: | Mettoy Co Ltd. was floated on the stock exchange which drew in over £40 million pounds. |
| 1964: | The Corgi Classics, marked 30 years of Mettoy and then the introduction of Husky, the latter was made for Woolworths. |
| 1964: | At the International Inventors exhibition in Brussels the Petite Typewriter won a gold medal. |
| 1965: | The Playcraft Wooden Toy range introduced the Berg range of plush animals. |
| 1966: | Mettoy won the 1st Queens Award to Industry, they also won again in "67 and "69. |
| 1968: | The Mettoy’s factories and warehouses were approximately 385,000 Sq. ft. and a workforce of 3,500 people. |
| 1969: | 10th March disaster struck with fire at the Queensway warehouse, many thought the company wouldn't survive. |
| 1971: | The company founder Philip Ullman dies aged 88. |
| 1973: | An additional space of 48,000 sq. ft. is acquired at Skewen for assembly and storage. |
| 1974: | A new die-casting foundry was built in Fforestfach and later a new 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse was opened. |
| 1981: | In September Mettoy became a public limited company, but recorded record losses and closed warehouses in Northampton and Skewen. |
| 1982: | Mettoy launches the Dragon family computer, but the manufacturing company is sold and then collapses. |
| 1983: | A number of job cuts were made in this year and more redundancies in the following year. The official receivers were called in on 31st October. |
| 1984: | March of this year there was a management buy-out of The Corgi Toy Company, including the Swansea factory. |
| 1986: | A small collection of Corgi die-cast toys were donated to Swansea Museum, two of them can be seen below. |
| Corgi Classics No. 914 Thornycroft Van with Lipton's Tea advertising |
Corgi Toys No. 269 Lotus Esprit 007 from James Bond "The Spy Who Loved Me" 1977 |
|---|
| 1989: | Mattel purchases the Swansea factory in this year. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1991: | The Swansea factory and offices close when Mattel moves to its headquarters in Leicester. | |
| 1999: | Arthur Katz, Mettoy managing director 1944-76; OBE , CBE, died on 21st March. | |
| 2008: | The current owners of the “corgi” brand are Hornby. www.corgi.co.uk. |
(Internal to external) Video Link - Christmas Roundup - Toy Factory
(External) Link Dragon Data & Non Dragon Data Quotes - Dragon Computers
Do not blame me for any external content.