Hawke International was founded in Manchester, England in 1957 and has been proudly manufacturing and innovating from our home there ever since.
Manchester is largely considered the first industrial city in the world. It was at the center of the global Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century when rapid growth of the cotton industry lead to vast expansion of the city. The creation of the Bridgewater canal allowed the shipment of coal from the coalfields of Worsley to the cotton mills of Manchester. This enabled the city to lead the transformation of manufacture and transport, shaping the trade of goods across the world into what we know today.
In 1830 the world’s first intercity railway, The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), opened to transport materials and passengers between the port of Liverpool and Manchester’s burgeoning cotton mills. The first railway to rely exclusively on steam powered locomotives, carry mail and be fully timetabled, it set the precedent for all future global rail transportation networks.
The city’s exporting success was further fueled by the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, which was the largest river navigation canal in the world, turning the city into a trading port by providing direct access for the passage of ocean going cargo ships.
Our founder William Hawke inscribed his name into the first Hawke Cable Gland in July 1957. We’ve been proudly putting the Hawke brand on our ranges of our Cable Glands, Enclosures and Connectors ever since.
You’ll find our manufacturing site and offices in an repurposed mill building, so the spirit of Manchester, and England’s industrial history, is never far from our minds as we innovate and adapt our market leading products to meet the ever changing requirements of our customers. All of our products are globally certified and meet a wide range of certification standards including ATEX, IECEx, EAC, INMETRO.
As well as our rich traditional heritage, we pride ourselves on remaining at the forefront of technology and innovation, and developing the very best products available globally. We are immensely proud of the market leading products we build in the United Kingdom.
To view our ranges, please visit our website.
Further Reading: Meet design engineer Murray Lonergan