From a single blast furnace fuelling a tiny iron works on a Welsh hillside, GKN was built by a group of men – and women – into a world leader. Not just once or twice, but many times, it changed shape and direction to hold its place at the forefront of the engineering industry.

When iron gave birth to the worldwide railway boom in the early 1800s, GKN was there. Steel superseded iron in the 1860s and the companies that created GKN were quick to see the opportunity. After the First World War, GKN moved into the 20th century’s greatest new industry – automotive. Late in the century, when the aerospace industry began to be transformed by the use of new materials, GKN was at the leading edge.

GKN has evolved geographically, too. As the balance of economic growth has shifted, from Britain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to America, continental Western Europe and Japan in the 20th and on to the emerging powers of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe in the 21st century, the group has moved with it and frequently ahead of it.

Today, the Automotive, Powder Metallurgy, OffHighway and Aerospace businesses that comprise GKN reach from the US West Coast to the eastern shores of Japan, from northern China throughout Europe to South Africa, Argentina and Australia. GKN is a truly global corporate citizen.

Click here to read more about the history of GKN.