Company History

Yorkshire Copper Tube has a very long and very illustrious history in copper tube manufacture.

Yorkshire Copper Tube’s company history has its foundations as far back as 1864 with the launch of the Broughton Copper Company in Salford, Manchester (UK). Broughton Copper Company were a smelter of copper and manufacturer of copper products including copper tubes.

This is a poster advertisement from 1892 detailing the full range of products that Broughton were making in those days including copper and brass tubes.

Broughton Copper Company

In the early 1900s, Broughton Copper Company were instrumental in developing copper tubes for plumbing and gas installations. This is an advertisement from 1928. By this time Broughton were making tubes in sizes 1/8 inch diameter up to 18 inches in diameter!

Factory in the 1930s

This is an aerial view photograph of the Broughton Copper Company factory in Manchester in the early 1930s.

Yorkshire Imperial Metals

Then in 1934 the Broughton Copper Company factory was purchased by ICI Metals. In the 1950s ICI Metals built a copper tube mill in Liverpool to replace the Manchester factory. It went into full production in 1955. In 1958 the company became Yorkshire Imperial Metals – hence the name of Yorkshire which continues today.

Mueller Industries

In 2014 the company Yorkshire Copper Tube was purchased by American manufacturing group Mueller Industries Inc. Copper tube production was subsequently transferred to Mueller’s ultra-modern manufacturing plant at Bilston in the West Midlands, UK. All copper tubes are made in UK.