Over 150 years ago John Lees began a remarkable dynasty: his was the first of three generations of the same family that built J B & S Lees into one of the worlds major steel strip producers. In 1852 he set up as a timber merchant but by the early 1870s he was producing iron boiler and gasometer plates, sheet iron and rolled iron bars.

In due course he was joined in his enterprise by his three sons, John Bayley, Samuel and Charles Lees, who, on taking over the business from their father, purchased the Albion Ironworks in West Bromwich. By 1872 demand for British iron was at an all-time high and an advertisement of the period shows the Company manufacturing "best, best-best and treble best" boiler plates, gasometer and bridge plates and strips for locomotive and gas tubes.

During the early years of the 20th century, the third generation of the Lees family, John Lees, joined the firm and in 1911 switched from wrought iron to the production of hot rolled steel strip. Soon new manufacturing techniques were demanding thinner, more accurate strip with a bright smooth surface, and cold rolled strip was introduced. 1937 saw J B & S Lees initiating production of hardened and tempered steel strip to satisfy the requirements of the aircraft industry.

Following this, the Company was asked by the British government to develop metal and wood cutting bandsaw strip, which could no longer be obtained from overseas. After sustained research and development 'Trident Brand' steel strip was born, which has become internationally renowned for its quality.

In 1960, 108 years of family ownership came to an end, but the Lees' pioneering spirit gained even greater impetus: developments in metal cutting bandsaw equipment were demanding a material that possessed a very fine carbide structure not obtainable by normal methods. J B & S Lees responded with 'Pink Label' Pinpoint Carbide strip. And in 1967, following experiments in the USA, J B & S Lees developed a bi-metal strip for metal cutting by electron beam welding a narrow strip of wear-resisting high speed steel to a wider spring steel supporting strip. The resulting 'Gold Label' strip is now seen in bandsaw, reciprocating saw and hacksaw applications throughout the world.

The 1970s witnessed the opening of J B & S Lees' office and warehouse in the USA and increased efforts placed behind exports. Between 1983 and 1985 export turnover rose from 33% to 60% of production and culminated in the Company earning the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1986.

Today, J B & S Lees capacity for higher precision products is greater than ever. With the backing of our owners, Caparo, considerable investment in new plant has been made, and the move towards highly processed products, achieving extremely close tolerances, is gaining even stronger momentum.