R A Lister and Company
[4] Marketed in the UK and British Empire as "The Alexandra Cream Separator", its success resulted in Pedersen moving to Dursley.
[6][7][8] Robert was a pioneer of business in Western Canada, and took the first cream separator in that region over the plains of Alberta in a journey made by horse buggy.
[6] Developing foreign competition meant that the manufacturing of milk churns and barrels ceased, and the over supply of second-hand ex-military engines and lighting sets reduced the company's profit considerably.
The company was eventually turned round under Percy's control, aided by the introduction in 1926[11] of the Lister Auto-Truck, used to move goods around factories, railway stations and dockyards the world over; production continued until 1973.
By 1926 the workforce was around 2000 and was growing rapidly; the company ran a 24-hour manufacturing operation, expanding its range of products and supplying retailers to around 6000 UK customers and many more worldwide.
In 1929, Sir Robert died at the age of 84, and in the same year the first of Lister's own design of "CS" (cold start) diesel engine was made.
These could be bought stand alone (many were used in the construction industry), or powering a complementary range of pumps, churns, cream separators, autotrucks, generating plant and sheep shearing equipment.
During the late 1920s Sir Robert and Charles Ashton Lister had been responsible for trying to obtain payments of bad debts incurred by American and Canadian farmers during the Great Depression.
He returned to England in about 1936 with his second wife, Doris Eleanor, and four new sons, Charles Owen, John, Frederick William and James Hugh.
Although remaining the majority shareholder of Listers the running of the company was left in the hands of his first family led by Sir Percy.
Before going to North America Charles had been responsible for securing bad debt in Germany for R A Lister, during that country’s period of hyper-inflation.
In order to try to protect the value of the funds repaid he invested in German property including a hotel in Bavaria of dubious repute.
?.<5> Having survived World War II, Lister continued to benefit from its reputation for durable, reliable high-quality engines, and its pedigree as an old-established firm.
[citation needed] In 2000, with Schroders looking to exit, the firm was bought through a £13.5M management buyout, enabled through selling the original 92-acre (37 ha) Lister factory site at Littlecombe, Dursley to the South West Regional Development Agency.
On this occasion, the workers via Unite the Union voted to remain in Dursley, but the company's registered headquarters were moved to Hardwicke, south of Gloucester, 11 miles (18 km) away.
[citation needed] After SWRDC sold the original factory site for redevelopment to specialist St. Modwen Properties, the residual engineering group announced its intention in March 2013 to relocate from Dursley.
Rescued quickly through a pre-packaged administration - which avoided the company's legal obligations to pay the required 250 redundancy packages, which were instead paid by the Government - the company's association with Dursley ended in April 2014, when assembly production moved to Hardwicke, Stroud and the parts supply store to a former Royal Air Force hangar at Aston Down.
From 1926 to 1968 they built light narrow gauge railway locomotives, weighing as little as 1½ tons, typically used by small brickworks and on peat bogs.
