Armitage Thanks initiative plans to raise £200,000 to celebrate 200 years of trading

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Armitage Shanks, parent company Ideal Standard has launched a campaign to raise £200,000 for charity by the end of its bicentenary year 2017.

The cash raised will be divided between the company’s chosen charity Bowel & Cancer Research and local causes, overseen by Hull charity The Smile Foundation.

The Armitage Thanks initiative will support charities and local communities where Ideal Standard’s three facilities are based, through fundraising events and activities.

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Ideal Standard has headquarters in Hull, East Yorkshire, on one of the original sites in Armitage near Rugeley in Staffordshire, and has furniture manufacturing in Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham.

The company that became Armitage Shanks was founded in 1817 by Thomas Bond and became Armitage Ware in 1907. In 1969, it merged with one of its competitors Shanks Holdings, based at Barrhead near Glasgow, creating Armitage Shanks.

Armitage Shanks is now owned by Ideal Standard International, with its 40-acre site at Armitage employing more than 300 staff and producing more than 1.4million pieces, annually.

Managing director of Ideal Standard UK, Keith Boad commented: “Since the early years of the 19th century, Armitage Shanks products have been used, seen and welcomed by everyone from paupers to pop stars, in everywhere from pubs and palaces to major sporting stadiums and motorway service stations. The bicentenary is truly an historic milestone for us and we are very proud, so we are going to mark it by saying a big ‘Armitage Thanks’ for supporting us over the last 200 years.”