The William Cook group is a British steel company headquartered in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is the UK's largest manufacturer of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

castings.

History

William Cook was founded in 1840 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, by the present chairman's great-great-grandfather, William Cook. After surviving a

bank failure A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. A bank typically fails economically when the market value of its ass ...

in the latter half of the 19th century, a small factory was founded in Sheffield in 1883, making

crucible steel Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron, cast iron, iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other fluxes, in a crucible. Crucible steel was first developed in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE in Sout ...

castings for

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

. The company remained in family ownership until 1956, when the company was floated on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. The company continued to grow, building and developing a new works in Sheffield, which is today one of the group's four main plants. The present Chairman, Sir Andrew Cook, took control of the company in 1981. In 2004, the company was brought back to 100% family ownership after a hostile takeover bid from Triplex-Lloyd plc.

Company structure

The William Cook group consists of three arms - Cook Defence Systems, William Cook Rail and William Cook Cast Products. William Cook Cast Products specialises in high-specification castings in specialist alloys for

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

and specialist

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

. Cook Defence Systems makes track systems and armoured steel castings for fighting vehicles. William Cook Rail makes cast steel components and complete coupler assemblies for trains. The company has three main plants - one in

, one in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, and one in Stanhope. The company is a member of the Cast Metals Federation, and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).

Significant activity

In 2014, the William Cook group was recognised as one of Yorkshire's Fastest 50 - a list of the fifty fastest growing companies in the region. In 2015, the British Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt Hon Michael Fallon, announced that the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

had awarded Cook Defence Systems a four-year, £70 million deal to supply spare tracks for the British Army's in-service armoured vehicles. This was followed in 2016 by Cook Defence Systems securing a £30m contract with General Dynamics to supply tracks for the British Army's new AJAX armoured vehicle. In 2016, the Group joined the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) as a research partner. During the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

Cook Defence Systems manufactured track for soviet built equipment for use by Ukraine.

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies based in Sheffield