ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation’s (IRC’s) involvement with the plant makers. It outlines the IRC's initial contacts with the industries and of some of the schemes that were put forward for the IRC to consider. The chapter covers the deals that were subsequently undertaken with the support or blessing of the IRC and so takes us to the time when serious concern began to develop for the financial positions of both Whessoe and Davy Ashmore (DA). Discussions with leading industrialists in the sector had begun even before the IRC Act received Royal Assent in December 1966. There was no shortage of rationalisation proposals and, in the course of the discussions, the IRC made its first contact with Sir Maurice Fiennes, Chairman of DA. The Stockton works had relied heavily on working for the rest of the DA group.
