Ermen & Engels

Sectors:

  • Textile production Thread production, esp for sewing

Notes:

Traced origins to the German Ermen family who in early 1830s established Ermen Brothers with works at Salford. In c1838 Peter Ermen, b1802, and Friedrich Engels senior, 1796-1860, also a German, formed a separate business, Ermen & Engels, which operated Victoria Mill and in 1840 established another cotton mill at Cologne which was managed by Engels. In the 1850s the two Manchester businesses merged. Came to specialise in production of cotton thread for which the newly invented sewing machine created a substantial demand. Engels' son, Friedrich E, junior, 1820-95, worked intermittently in the Manchester business from 1840s and full time from 1850; in 1864 he became a partner and retired in 1869. Engels junior was to achieve wide recognition as a philosopher and friend and collaborator of Karl Marx to whom he passed information and expertise on business matters. In 1870s the firm became Ermen & Roby which was incorporated in 1896 and which merged into the English Sewing Cotton Co Ltd in 1897

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