Slack and Parr celebrates 100th birthday milestone
AN ENGINEERING company based in Kegworth celebrated its 100th birthday with a family day for employees both past and present.
Slack and Parr Ltd was formed in 1917, and had a centenary celebration day at the factory grounds on Long Lane in Kegworth on Saturday, July 15.
Harry Slack started business in Kegworth with a bicycle repair shop on Derby Road, Kegworth from 1910 in a property next to the Temperance Hall and this later became Slack and Harrison when Mr Slack was joined in partnership by Freddie Harrison.
In 1913 Mr H.B Parr introduced himself expressing interest in investing in he what was becoming a successful business, a condition being that he would buy out Mr Harrison which he did for £60 and invested a further £200 in the new partnership.
During the Great War the company’s fortunes changed as industry in general was pressed into munitions and equipment manufacturing.
By now the garage side of the business had been replaced by machines powered by a small gas engine and their first job was turning “biscuits” for munitions shells.
Towards the end of the war, Mr Parr was able to realise his ambition to obtain work from Rolls Royce in Derby and a contract was won machining parts for the famous Rolls Royce Eagle Aero engines, so began a long association with Rolls Royce.
It soon became necessary for new larger premises and capital investment.
A previous interested party - Dr Bedford - found a disused factory in Sideley and in 1917 a new company called Slack and Parr Limited was formed by Dr Bedford, H.B Parr and H.A Slack.
The munitions work continued in the new premises until the end of the war in 1918 by which time the company had moved into general engineering without any products of its own, manufacturing several products and components from drilling machines to small petrol engines for pleasure boats.
In 1946 Slack and Parr manufactured its first precision gear metering pump at the start of the artificial silk industry for Celanese in Spondon, still a customer to this day.
Now a leading manufacturer of gear pumps to a global market Slack and Parr Limited have enjoyed 100 years on the same site in Kegworth supplying to the man made fibre industry, industrial market and hydraulic flow dividers that form the hydraulic division.