Business and History - Allcock, Laight & Westwood Limited

ALLCOCK, LAIGHT & WESTWOOD LIMITED 

This material is from an alphabetical company list found in Business and History at Western at the University of Western Ontario.

This essay was written in c 1967. It was copied from the May 1967 "Centennial Issue" of Industrial Canada held in the Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario. The original article should be consulted since this copy may contain some errors. The text and/or the images are being made available to researchers for scholarly purposes. They should not be used for commercial gain without the permission of the author or publisher.

Mr. Samuel Allcock of S. Allcock & Company, Redditch, Worcestershire, England, manufacturers of fishing tackle, was a regular business visitor to the United States in the fifties of the last century. On one visit he made a side-trip to Canada and was sufficiently impressed by the market to form a partnership with another Redditch manufacturer, Mr. Charles Laight, for the sale of S. Allcock & Company's fishing tackle and C. Laight & Company's needles and smallwares throughout Canada, as well as the manufacture in Canada of Bamboo, Green heart and Lancewood fishing rods.

This was in 1854. A Mr. Milward was sent out from the Allcock factory in Redditch to manage the Canadian venture, which first occupied premises on King Street East in Toronto, opposite St. James Cathedral. The company very soon outgrew the King Street building and in the next fifty years moved four times to larger quarters.

In 1868 Benjamin Westwood was sent from Redditch to succeed Mr. Milward as manager, and in 1885 he purchased Charles Laight's partnership interest and became joint owner with Samuel Allcock. Allcock, Laight & Westwood was the firm's name from that date until 1898, when it was organized as a limited liability company, The Allcock, Laight & Westwood Company of Toronto Limited.

Benjamin Westwood directed the company's affairs for 51 years, until 1919. During his term, the factory was completely destroyed in the great Toronto fire of March 1904, and then rebuilt on the same site.

In 1912 the foundations of the company's present management structure were laid when J. B. Kennedy joined the firm as Secretary and John Mossop as Western Sales Representative. In 1919 Kennedy and Mossop jointly purchased all outstanding shares and acquired full control, operating the company as a partnership until 1950.

Their 31 years of joint ownership were expansive ones. Smallwares had been discontinued in 1915. In 1922 a department was organized for the sale of guns, ammunition, hunting and camping equipment and supplies, and another, for the sale of ski equipment, in 1924. In the same year manufacturing of a full line of artificial metal baits was begun. The sale of golf equipment was started in 1928 and in 1933 its manufacture was begun as a major operation under the name Adanac Golf Clubs Limited.

Two moves to larger quarters were made in these years, the second, in 1938, to a 13,000 sq. ft. factory in Leaside where manufacturing was extended to ski bindings, ski poles and sundries.
By 1940 the fishing tackle and ski equipment market had grown to such an extent that the entire manufacturing space was taken over by these products and Adanac Golf Clubs Ltd. was sold as a going concern.

With the retirement of J. B. Kennedy in 1950 John Mossop acquired complete control of the company, whose name was changed in 1957 to Allcock, Laight & Westwood Limited.

Manufacture of a new line, A.L.&W. PAK-DEK Cartop Carriers, was begun in 1956. Three years later the company sold its century-old retail store, established a western Branch and warehouse in Calgary and opened an office and showroom in Montreal.

Since 1959 Allcock, Laight & Westwood has developed a full line of ski equipment including skis, poles, boots and bindings, under the now nationally famous name of A.L.&W. Arlberg.

Upon the death of John Mossop on January 17, 1965, his son, J. Douglas Mossop, succeeded as President.