Our heritage

The company that became GKN was forged in the first fires of the Industrial Revolution. Through the two-and-a-half centuries of its remarkable life, GKN has proved a master of industrial evolution.

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 Steel superseded iron in the 1860s and the companies that comprised GKN were quick to see the opportunity.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, the Group has moved with it and frequently ahead of it - from Britain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to America, continental Western Europe and Japan in the 20th century and on to the emerging powers of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe in the late 20th/early 21st century.

Today, the 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.