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Our commitment to this highly specialised field was forged in London during the 1880s when Scottish engineer James Walker introduced his innovative Lion® Brand High Pressure Steam Packing.
This proved vital to the success of a new generation of high-efficiency steam engines that powered mankind into the 20th Century. It also set us on the path to a dedicated future in fluid sealing products and furnished us with our famous lion logo.
Prior to James Walker's commercial leap from the factoring of engineering accessories to sealing product development, few other companies had applied engineering science to the design and manufacture of packings for triple expansion engines. This, plus business acumen, was his personal route to success and the start of a new technology - high performance fluid sealing.
By 1898, he had outgrown his cramped warehouse in the back streets of east London. He bought a disused rope walk and then a second factory in the same street at the heart of London Docklands, close to the vessels that needed his products such as semi-metallic Lion® Patent Packing. At this stage the name Lion Works was created.
As business rapidly increased, he established depots in the UK's main industrial centres and principal ports, where packings and his new Golden Walkerite® high-pressure jointing found ready markets in the marine, automotive and railway industries.
James Walker's outstanding success attracted competitors thick and fast, especially when his original patents expired. But constant research and development, and the resulting improvements to products, kept him well ahead of the field.
He opened his first overseas depot in Antwerp in 1910. Lion Packings were marketed in the USA during the early 1900s, but it was not until 1912 that a James Walker depot was founded in New York.
James Walker died at the age of 73 in 1913. Although a major influence on the company's growth until his death, day-to-day responsibilities had for some years been in the capable hands of George Cook. George was an early member of James Walker's team who earned his spurs as a successful salesman working worldwide.
The 1914-18 War severely tested our abilities to meet production targets.
Although sealing products were in great demand by every branch of the armed services, the company never faulted on deliveries. This kept us steadfastly independent as one of the few UK engineering companies that never came under direct government control.
By 1926 we had a workforce of 350 and our London Docklands premises were bursting at the seams. On a weekend drive in Surrey, George Cook discovered a large disused factory near Woking.
Its Victorian offices had been built as the Royal Dramatic College and retirement home for actors, then became a centre for oriental learning. Assembly shops were added between 1910 and 1923 when it was used by Martinsyde for aircraft and motorcycle production - with a 2000-strong workforce.
We swiftly moved production to the Woking factory. Lion Works, Woking, Surrey was set to become an address known to industry across the world as the company grew in international stature. Today, Lion Works has gone, although the Lion House head office of James Walker Group still occupies a corner of the original site.
These were times of rapid overseas expansion for us, with production and demand well matched. A Paris office was formed as soon as business in France returned to normal after the Great War. Successful sales through agents in Holland during the 1920s led to the opening of a James Walker depot at Rotterdam in 1933.
On the other side of the world, an Australian company was founded in 1930 with offices at Sydney. Sales branches opened at Melbourne in 1933 and in Wellington, New Zealand three years later. These proved so successful that manufacturing in Australia started in 1935.
The business scene was the same in the USA, where James Walker Packing Company Inc was formed as a manufacturer in 1933 to capitalise on the 21 year success of the New York sales depot.
When George Cook died in 1938, his sales, planning and management abilities had turned the company into a manufacturing success and a world leader in fluid sealing products. His place at the helm was taken by William Dixon, a junior clerk in 1900, who rose through the ranks as salesman, depot manager, PA to George Cook, director, managing director and chairman.
When war came in 1939, our products and knowledge were again in urgent demand - and so were new skills. Chemists, metallurgists, tribologists and materials scientists were all needed to help develop the fluid seals and other components that would match giant leaps in engine and plant technology - and lead to the jet and nuclear ages soon to follow.
In 1948, our reputation for materials technology made us one of the first companies outside America to work with an outstanding 'new' polymer called PTFE. At that time PTFE was classed as a strategic material available only on special licence from the USA.
Engineering work with polyamides started soon after. This led to our identification of new roles for thermoplastics and fluoropolymers in high integrity seals on rotary and linear action mechanisms operating in the harshest environments.
Today, the development of high performance elastomers and engineering plastics is a key factor in our solution of fluid sealing problems.
The 1950s brought further expansion in international markets. A modern factory was built outside Sydney, Australia to meet regional demands, and the first compressed fibre jointing ever produced on that continent rolled from our mill in 1959. The USA operation moved its manufacturing and office site to Glenwood, Illinois - closer to America's industrial heartland than New York - and in Italy a James Walker company was founded in Milan for a similar reason.
By the 1970s, there were group companies operating in nine countries, and sales activity in 80 countries.
However, the sealing industry was now facing a crisis of confidence in its most versatile raw material - asbestos. At the same time, the UK was pushing forward with North Sea gas and oil field development. New materials and products to meet these challenges were urgently needed.
Our scientists, technologists and engineers launched themselves into research and development programmes that were to set the seal on our company's success through to the next millennium.
Within just a few years we had proven ranges of non-asbestos packings, jointings and expansion joints on the market, and were helping all sectors of industry to become asbestos-free.
Our liaison with operators and equipment manufacturers in the oil and gas industry proved highly productive. This is characterised by our development and application of explosive decompression (ED) resistant grades of elastomer -such as Elast-O-Lion® and FR58/90 - that withstand the harshest of downhole and wellhead duties.
Other materials and products swiftly followed that provided sealing solutions to extend greatly the maintenance-free working life of oilfield equipment, and enable operators to work more efficiently in hostile environments.
Further technological challenges followed in the 1990s when the control of VOC emissions became an environmental and economic necessity. Our innovative work on this front resulted in the development of Supagraf® Premier, a world-beating valve stem packing that controls fugitive emissions from petrochemical plant.
As we enter the 21st Century, we look firmly to the future to seek out new challenges that will demand our particular blend of technological expertise, applications knowledge and manufacturing skills.
In the lifetime of our company, plant and equipment performance has grown exponentially in terms of operating speed, pressure, temperature, reliability and environmental efficiency. Our quantum leaps in fluid sealing technology have made this possible, and will continue to do so.
In parallel with technical developments, we have constantly invested in customer service improvements.
Now, our flexible production techniques and automated warehouses ensure we meet the JIT demands of modern industry across the globe. World class manufacturing plants and strict QA regimes, backed by value-in-service arrangements, enable us to win longterm partnering deals with major customers - to everyone's advantage.
Our biggest single investment to date - a £2M high-tech customer service centre at Crewe - guarantees that the ten-million fluid sealing items we stock are constantly on the move: to you, our customers.
Commenting on the Group’s success over the past 125 years, chairman and chief executive Peter Needham said: “We have new products, markets and ideas that will keep us busy, profitable and expanding rapidly into the future.
”In this important anniversary year, we are more dependent than ever on the excellence of our staff at all levels. I must therefore congratulate our staff on their achievements, and thank our thousands of customers for their continued business.
”Without you all, we would not be celebrating 125 years of James Walker success.”
