James Halstead plc is a United Kingdom-based manufacturer and distributor of commercial flooring products. Its head office is in Radcliffe,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

History

James Halstead established the business as a manufacturer of waterproof cotton textiles and rubberised fabrics in 1915. The flooring market was entered in the 1930s. James Halstead became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

in 1948. Belstaff, the British outerwear clothing brand was acquired in 1948. Polyflor was introduced in the late 1940s. It represented a new type of plastic flooring, combining

PVC Polyvinyl chloride (alternatively: poly(vinyl chloride), colloquial: vinyl or polyvinyl; abbreviated: PVC) is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic polymer of plastic (after polyethylene and polypropylene). About 40 million tons o ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and a plasticiser. By the late 1980s James Halstead had transitioned to become a specialist floor covering manufacturer. Belstaff was sold to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

businessman Franco Malenotti in 2004.

References

{{reflist, auto Companies based in Manchester British companies established in 1915 Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market 1915 establishments in England Manufacturing companies based in Manchester