Global Leadership
With twelve manufacturing facilities on five continents, and almost 150 years of experience, no other company brings as much expertise to your conveyor application needs.
Beginning with the production of the first leather belts and progressing to the world’s latest technology in textile and steel reinforcements, Fenner Dunlop has participated in the complete history of conveyor belting. | |
1861 The Fenner Group was founded in Hull by Joseph Henry Fenner. Early products manufactured included leather belting which formed the link between the driving engines and the driven machines of the day.
1890s The business expanded exporting goods across Europe and India.
1920s Leather was not the only possible material for transmission belting and alternatives such as rubber and textiles were developed. The First World War saw expansion of the weaving side of the business.
1937 The company floated on the London Stock Exchange and formed a public company - J.H. Fenner & Co. Ltd.
1940s Fenner secured a contract from the Ministry of Supply for military webbing and manufactured more than eleven million feet of woven textile hose in the course of the second world war.
1950s After the war, Fenner began to expand globally – new products were introduced and companies acquired to give the Company a more diversified base from which to operate. Fenaplast solid woven conveyor belting introduced.
1961 A new development and testing facility was built in Hull to commemorate the Company's centenary.
1970s Fenner purchases its USA licensee who had been manufacturing Fenaplast since 1959. Weaving operation was opened in South Africa, so that they were no longer reliant on imports from the UK.
1980s Fenner America Ltd was closed and equipment transferred back to the UK. A sales operation was set up to sell imported conveyor belt from the UK.
1985 and 1987 Transfer of Technology deals were signed with Zhongnan Rubber Company in Yichang City, Hubei province, and Qingdao No 6 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.
1986 US sales operation was moved to Lawrence, Pennsylvania.
1989 Weaving of belt carcass began in Sydney, Australia. In order to gain a foothold into belt splicing and maintenance in the Queensland area of Australia, a service branch was opened in Mackay.
Early 1990s The Conveyor Belting business became a separate division of Fenner PLC. A service branch in Narellan, New South Wales, Australia was opened to provide the Southern coalfields with belt splicing and maintenance.
1995 Acquired Turner Belting Ltd of Wigan, UK.
1996 Acquired Nationwide Belting of Toledo, Ohio, USA a manufacturer of industrial conveyor belting. Building of a new state-of-the-art factory commenced near Shanghai in the People's Republic of China.
1997 Scandura Inc of Charlotte, North Carolina, with manufacturing facilities in Ohio and Canada was acquired. Official opening ceremony of the Shanghai Fenaplast Conveyor Belting factory.
2001 Fenner bought the conveyor belting business of UniPoly SA, giving Fenner world leadership in conveyor belting. As part of the acquisition came the addition of the Dunlop brand and the renaming of the business to Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting Worldwide.
2005 There are now six operations across Europe, America, Australia, China, India and South Africa. The core product range includes plied rubber, PVC solid woven and steel cord belting, plus a range of products for special applications. |