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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

QUALCAST

The name, derived from "Quality Castings", adopted by the Derwent Iron Foundry when it became a public company in 1928, although Derwent had made mowers under their own name since 1920, following the Board of Trade's embargo on foreign imports. Much of this firm's work initially was to make components for machines such as the ATCO "Standard". Qualcast acquired Follows & Bate in 1938 and in 1958 took over the Kaufmann Group which included Suffolk Iron Foundries. ATCO joined the Group in 1962 followed in 1967 by Birmid Industries (Birmingham Aluminium Midland Cylinders), the whole becoming Birmid-Qualcast. This in turn was acquired by Blue Circle Industries in 1988 when the foundry side of the business was sold off. In 1991 there was a further name change to Atco-Qualcast Ltd. when the Derby site was closed down and activities transferred to Stowmarket. The company was acquired by the Bosch Group in 1996.