Unfortunately this was not a good period for the Haws Company. Elliotts had purchased Haws as a basis for building a Consumer Products Division to lessen their dependence on contract moulding. They decided to bringthe manufacture of the metal can range ‘in house’, despite having no experience in metal fabrication. Inevitably there were long production delays and quality problems and as a result the division began to lose money heavily.
By the time that Haws was back in profit, having outsourced metal can manufacture, the severe recession of the late 1970s had weakened the Elliott Group to such an extent that they decided to sell Haws and concentrate their efforts on contract moulding. Subsequently the Group went out of business completely. The Haws name, goodwill and tooling were purchased by Smethwick based Eclipse Sprayers Ltd.
John Massey, the existing Director of Haws, transferred from Elliotts to rebuild the business working with the new owners - the Pennock family.
Introduction
Part 1 – The Early Years, 1885–1925
Part 2 – The Bishops Stortford Years 1925–53
Part 3 – The Tala Years, 1953–76
Part 4 – The Elliott Years, 1976–82
Part 5 – The Eclipse Years, 1982–