Amalgamated Power Engineering
Amalgamated Power Engineering was a British engineering holding company, created through the 1968 merger of W.H. Allen, Sons and Co and Belliss and Morcom.
In 1966, the receiver of Crossley Brothers of Manchester, sold the Crossley-Premier Engines and Furnival and Co businesses to Belliss and Morcom of Birmingham, West Midlands. In 1968 B&M agreed a merger with W.H. Allen, Sons and Co of Bedford, to form Amalgamated Power Engineering, 60% owned by Allen's shareholders and 40% by Belliss and Morcom; which instantly became a leading manufacturer of engines. In 1968, APE reached agreement with Cooper-Bessemer to allow C-B to sell APE's gas treatment plant worldwide. In 1969, APE's Allen Gwynnes Pumps subsidiary acquired the industrial pumps business of Vickers plc based in Barrow in Furness.
After a difficult period in the 1970s, when due to ongoing losses APE sold a number of subsidiaries, in 1981 APE was acquired by Northern Engineering Industries plc, based in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. NEI shut most of the old central-Birmingham factories, consolidated the products around compressors, and moved B&M to Redditch. NEI itself was then acquired by Rolls Royce plc in 1989.
