Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks

Type	Private (subsidiary of Bain Capital)
Industry	Bathroom fixtures & plumbing supplies
Predecessor	Armitage Ware Limited
Successor	American Standard Companies
Founded	1817
Founder	Thomas Bond
Headquarters	Stoke-on-Trent, England
Number of locations	8 factories
Area served	United Kingdom
Website	http://www.armitage-shanks.co.uk/

Armitage Shanks is a British manufacturer of bathroom fixtures and plumbing supplies.

In 2004 Armitage Shanks had eight factories in the UK, the largest in Armitage, Staffordshire. Armitage Shanks is one of the sponsors of the Loo of the Year Awards.

History

Armitage Shanks on a Urinal

The company that became Armitage Shanks was founded in 1817 by Thomas Bond in Armitage, Staffordshire. The Armitage "sanitary pottery manufacture" became a successful UK toilet manufacturer. In 1907 Armitage Ware Limited was incorporated.

In 1969 Armitage merged with Shanks Holdings Limited, a competing "sanitary engineering company" established at Barrhead near Glasgow, Renfrewshire in 1878, producing the famous brand name Armitage Shanks.

In 1980 Armitage Shanks was purchased by Blue Circle Industries, and in February 1999 Blue Circle sold its bathroom division (consisting of Armitage Shanks and the Italian Ceramica Dolomite) to U.S. based American Standard Companies for US$430 million. Following this purchase, the Armitage Shanks brand continued in the UK, and their former export markets. American Standard were acquired by Bain Capital in 2007 and is now majority-owned by Sun Capital Partners.

Other uses of the name

The company has inspired other people and groups to use the name, sometimes as an example of toilet humour.

• Armitage Shanks is the pseudonym of the ringmaster of the Seattle, Washington based Circus Contraption
• "Armatage Shanks" [sic] is the first song on Green Day's 1995 album, Insomniac, which came about after the band had been to England and noticed the brand name on the urinals there.
• "Armitage Shanks" is the 24th song on Future Clouds and Radar's self-titled 2007 album.
• "Armitage Shanks" is the given name of the Loch Ness Monster in the 2015 musical by Robert J. Sherman, Love Birds.
• "Armitage Shanks" is a b-side on the 1993 single "U Talk 2 Much" by Cork City band The Sultans of Ping FC. Lyrics include: 'No one says Merry Christmas to those masters of industry, Armitage Shanks' and 'Often people use you, never even flush you'.
• "Armitage Shanks" is a humorous song by Chuck Brodsky, recorded on his live album "Two Sets."
• Armitage Shanks was an English garage punk band in the 1990s and 2000s.
• "Armitage Shanks" is a fictional character in the Focus on the Family radio drama, "Adventures in Odyssey".
• "Armitage Shanks" is a fictional character in the novel Taz by Dawood Ali McCallum.
• "Armitage Shanks" is a fictional character played by Sean Griffin in 1998's The X-Files video game.
• The Armitage Shanks Championship Bowl is a fictional Mornington Crescent prize in I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
• Also one of the many nicknames of the late Richard Marsland from the Get This radio programme.
• Armitage Shanks is also an up and coming Wrestler in the popular Facebook game Wrestler:Unstoppable
• "Hermitage Shanks," a pun on the name, is the title of a song on Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer's 2010 album "I Say!"
• Armitage Shanks is the main character in Kevin Cannon's Far Arden.
• Armitage Shanks is the name of a lab rat in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
• Armitage is the name of a false super secret organization within MI7 that Simon Ambrose claims to be part of. He takes the name off a toilet within his view at the time in the movie Johnny English Reborn
• Terry-Thomas plays the characters Sir Percy Ware Armitage and his dastardly son Sir Cuthbert Ware Armitage in a pair or British farces Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and the follow up/sequel Monte Carlo or Bust

External links

• Armitage Shanks corporate site