Whessoe

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Whessoe was once one of the largest employers on Teeside in the North East England. It was a leading international instrumentation business.

[edit] History

The business was founded by Alfred Kitching in Darlington in 1791 as an ironmongers and foundry.

In the 1890's Whessoe started building oil storage tanks and infrastructure for refineries. The company became listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1920 and Shell Transport & Trading purchased 51% of ordinary shares. The company was a leader in the design, fabrication and construction of pressure vessels and large-scale storage tanks, being the first to apply welding technology versus riveted construction.

In the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's the company focused on marine tanker and tank farm inventory management systems, providing complete solutions for inventory management, loss control, tank gauging and environmental safety, both onshore and offshore.

In the 1990's, the corporate headquarters was moved to just outside Darlington, a few miles from the site of the original foundry.

In 1997 Endress+Hauser acquired the company.^[1]