History

The history of Cooper & Jackson is a story of continual investment and growth since its foundation in 1979 by Chris Cooper and Ken Jackson.

Producing sheared blanks on a single guillotine from a small unit in the heart of the Black Country the founders quickly established Cooper & Jackson’s reputation for considerable flexibility, delivering on its promises and exceeding expectations. An increasing customer base and the subsequent need to house more guillotines meant the company moved premises on several occasions before purchasing its first property in 1991 on Shaw Road, Dudley.

This site offered significant opportunities and enabled Cooper & Jackson to expand its range of services with the introduction of a wide slitting line in 1993. Representing a sizeable investment at the time the venture proved successful with more and more customers benefiting from Cooper & Jackson’s flexible approach.

Some restructuring was necessary in 1995 when Ken Jackson retired but the transition was well planned and the company continued to seek more opportunities for growth. Such an opportunity presented itself in 1998 when the current site at Pedmore Road was acquired as part of an ambitious expansion plan. A new management team was introduced to help lead the company forward. Chris Cooper remained as Managing Director with Roger Tunnicliffe joining the company as Commercial Director and Paul Ward taking up the position of Company Secretary.

The Pedmore Road site now houses an 1850mm wide slitting line, a 1000mm wide slitting line, a narrow blanking line, a Multi Strand Blanking Line and the capacity to handle 27 tonne coils. Significant investment has also been put into improving the productivity of the factory. Recent examples include:

• A new recoiler.
• A “double looper” designed and manufactured to make it possible to produce thin gauge slit coil to a minimum of 0.25mm.
• The facility to set the slitting head and separator arms offline, thus dramatically reducing the change over times.

Having joined the company as a Slitting Line operator in 1999, Kevin Edwards was promoted from works supervisor to Operations Manager in January 2008. He is now responsible for all production operations at Cooper and Jackson.

These improvements have been made to enable Cooper & Jackson to deliver the high standards its customers expect. As a result the company offers a more flexible, tailored and personal service than any of its competitors.

This cycle of investment and growth has seen Cooper & Jackson grow from a small shearing business employing two people into a fully equipped Steel Processing Centre with 30 full time employees. Cooper & Jackson now looks forward to the future as a modern, progressive organisation with pride in its past.